Australian envoy's visit to RSS headquarters stirs controversy, draws widespread condemnation

(Karachi) Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O'Farrell's visit to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters has stirred a controversy and drew widespread condemnation by people from all walks of life, media reported.

Barry met RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in India's Nagpur city on November 15. The meeting reportedly took place at the RSS headquarters located in Nagpur's Mahal area.

Reacting to his visit, the Australian diaspora rights group and prominent Christian leaders and politicians have deplored Farrell's move.

"This is deeply shameful," former Australian Senator Lee Rhiannon stated. He added, "RSS publicly admire Hitler and promote a pure race ideology, extreme Hindu nationalism, for India."

Similarly, Human rights and political advocacy organisation, The Humanism Project, said: “The Humanism Project wishes to express its dismay, shock and disappointment at the visit by Australian High Commissioner to India, His Excellency Barry O’Farrell to the headquarters of the RSS.”

It stated, "The RSS runs quasi-militant outfits that have often been charged with participating in communal riots and running campaigns against the religious minorities of India and brought up the murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons in 1999 at the hands of “Bajrang Dal, whose leader Dara Singh was convicted for the heinous hate crime and murder, in 2003.”

Meanwhile, minorities living in Australia have submitted a petition demanding resignation from the Australian High Commissioner. The petition has been signed by over 1,300 people.

The petition stated, “O’Farrell’s laudatory visit to the RSS headquarters instills a spirit of dread within the persecuted minorities of India as well as those Australian citizens of Indian minority origin.”

It mentioned, “His open praise for RSS is already being used by right-wing media outlets in India as a propaganda tool to promote the paramilitary. In short, O’Farrell’s visit with RSS represents a threat to regional peace and stability.”

In a statement defending his visit to RSS headquarter, Barry O’Farrell’s said the aim of the visit was to applaud RSS’s COVID-19 relief efforts.