RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat told audiences in New York that a Hindu who believes Muslims have no place in Bharat forfeits the right to call himself Hindu, a striking formulation delivered across two linked appearances built around the theme of interfaith unity. Speaking at the Universal Oneness Celebration at Madison Square Garden and at the One World, One Humanity gathering of the World Council of Religious Leaders, Bhagwat argued that Hindutva, properly understood, does not envisage an India without Muslims.
He put the point plainly, saying that if any Hindu thinks there should be no Muslims in Bharat, that person will not remain Hindu, a line that pushed back directly against any reading of Hindu nationalism as exclusionary of India's Muslim population. Bhagwat framed differences among human beings as real but situated within a deeper unity, telling the gathering that religions might differ while humanity itself remains one.
Diversity, in Bhagwat's telling, was not something to be merely accepted but actively protected. He described it as a decoration for unity, using the phrase to argue that plurality strengthens rather than threatens a shared national and human identity, a theme he tied back to the civilisational idea of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the notion that the world itself is one family.