It has been brought to my notice subsequently that at the same meeting, also sat along with them Swami Ramdev who also chose to remain silent about the resolution against the singing of Vande Mataram. Khudiram Bose, the great revolutionary youth of Bengal went to the gallows on 11 August 1908 with the song of Vande Mataram on his lips. Madan Lal Dingra who assassinated Sir Curzon Wyllie, Political Aide-de-Camp to the Secretary of State for India was hanged in London on 17 August, 1909. He also died with the song of Vande Mataram on his lips. The battle cry of freedom of great martyrs like Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekar Azad and hundreds of others who were hanged by the British Government was also the song of Vande Mataram. Nationalist Muslims of India should have no serious objection against this constitutionally approved National Song of Vande Mataram. The recent resolution of Muslim clerics at Deoband clearly shows that Sardar Vallabhai Patel (1876-1950) was absolutely right when he told Pundit Nehru in categorical terms in 1948: ‘A Nationalist Muslim is a misnomer. It is a contradiction in terms’.

I view the presence of Swami Ramdev as an act of religious surrender. He cannot hope to succeed with the Muslims in the cultural arena where even Mahatma Gandhi failed so disastrously and so magnificently.

It has also been brought to my notice that Baba Ramdev is not the only Hindu Swami engaged in the cultural task of cajoling the Muslims. Recently an English newspaper in Bombay organized An Inter-Religious Dialogue for Spiritual Enlightenment in which Sri Sri Ravishankar (Art of Living) and Dr Zakir Naik (Islamic Research Foundation) took part. In this very programme, an attempt was also made to downgrade the Gita during the interactive discourse on a mischievously chosen topic ‘Jihad in the Gita and the Quran’. The title of the debate implied that the doctrine of jihad has been preached both in the Gita and the Quran – something totally false and highly offensive to Hindu feelings and emotions—in short to the Hindu ethos in general. The participants in this lurid drama were Maulana Wahiduddin and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, while the well known columnist, Narayani Ganesh, acted as moderator and debated on the larger theme of ‘Concept of God in Hinduism and Islam’. It is a pity that Sri Sri Ravishankar could not see  through the clever game being played by the English newspaper to bring down the Bhagavad Gita to the level of Quran. Both Sri Sri Ravishankar and the moderator betrayed their ignorance of Islam when the Maulana took them for an easy ride by presenting a ‘humane’ and ‘compassionate’ view of Jihad.

In this context Shri Ram Ohri IPS (Retd) and Secretary General of Patriots’ Forum, New Delhi has rightly observed: ‘It is a tragedy that Sri Sri Ravishankar could not even rebut the inane profanity hidden in the theme. The Gita does not command Hindus to kill all non-Hindus, or for that matter, not even atheists. …The scriptural soul of Hinduism, the Gita, does not preach, nor even remotely mentions, anything comparable to the Islamic doctrine of jihad which is a permanent holy war against all non-Muslims, as ordained in Islamic scriptures’.

The importance of jihad— has been highlighted by M J Akbar, in his tome, ‘The Shade of Swords’, in which he has succinctly summed up that “jihad is the signature tune of Islamic history” He has drawn pointed attention to the saying by the Prophet himself that “Paradise comes under the shade of swords”. M J Akbar’s exposition of jihad is a clear rebuttal of the falsehood being preached by Maulana Wahiduddin and several others to hoodwink the gullible Hindus.

When I invited the attention of P Deivamuthu, the editor and publisher of HINDU VOICE in Mumbai to the recent Muslim resolution against Vande Mataram song at the general meeting of Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind at Deoband and the presence of Swami Ramdev there, he gave me even more shocking news. I understand from him that Swami Ramdev has written a book in Hindi called Jeevan Darshan.  I am presenting below the cover page of this book: