Friday, March 11 2005 10:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mangalore: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) today (Mar 11, 2005) said Muslims and Christians in India could not be treated as minorities and called for an early end to "minorityism".

Addressing the Akhil Bharat Pratinidhi Sabha, the highest policy making body of RSS, which began its three-day conclave in Mangalore, RSS general secretary Mohan Rao Bhagawat said 99.9 per cent of Muslims and Christians of our country have not come from outside.

"Their forefathers till a few years ago were Hindus only. It is the same blood which flowed in them and the rest of the Hindu society," he said.

The British had introduced minority majority division in order to divide our national society, Bhagawat said.

"In reality, minorities are those who have been uprooted from their respective countries and take shelter in other countries. On that basis, our Jews and Parsies can be called minorities. But they refused to call themselves minorities and completely submerged their identities in the national mainstream of our country," he said.

The Supreme Court, Bhagawat said, had in its judgement categorically stated that Hindu does not denote any religion and it was a way and view of life encompassing several ways of worship. "It is in the interest of the nation to put an early end to this concept of minorityism."

The conclave is being attended by 1,200 delegates from RSS and its 30 affiliated (Parivar) organisations in this coastal city which has a strong RSS base.