The RSS has reportedly distanced itself from the high-profile Iftar party to be held on July 2 in Delhi by ‘RSS-affiliate’ Muslim Rashtriya Manch to which even diplomats of Muslim countries are invited.

A blogpost by the communications wing of the RSS said that Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramuk Manmohan Vaidya had clarified on the issue. “Media reports on RSS conducting Iftar party are factually incorrect. RSS is not organising any such party,” Vaidya said.

He went on to add, “Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM), organising Iftar Party, is an independent Muslim organisation to create national awareness. RSS shares views of MRM on national issues and supports national awareness programs of MRM as any national cause.”

Incidentally, this comes a day after it was reported that MRM withdrew the invitation of Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit over his "insensitive" remarks of the recent terror attack which killed eight CRPF jawans in Pampore, Jammu and Kashmir.

On June 22, almost all major publications carried news of MRM announcing the Iftar party as an attempt of the RSS to lose its ‘anti-Muslim’ tag and spread the message of harmony.

Vaidya even clarified that senior RSS functionary Indresh Kumar does not hold formal position in MRM but ‘keeps contact with MRM’.

However, according to the MRM website, “Indresh Kumar played a very important role in fading the image of RSS as “diehard, communal, fundamentalist Hindu organization” and made “Muslims leaders and Muslim intellectuals openly embracing RSS as their true friend and Kumar as their messiah”.