Archive · 3 Sep 2026
New York Faith Leaders Regret Participation at Bhagwat Event
Three religious leaders in New York attended an event at Madison Square Garden.
They said they thought it was an interfaith gathering about peace and cooperation.
They said organizers did not tell them that Mohan Bhagwat would be the main guest.
Bhagwat leads the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS.
Adriene Thorne said appearing beside him wrongly suggested that she supported the RSS.
Winnie Varghese said some of her colleagues were also invited without knowing Bhagwat would attend.
Shamsi Ali called his participation a serious mistake and said he would not have gone if he had known.
The leaders later expressed regret and criticized Bhagwat’s comments about peace.
Three New York faith leaders said they were misled about an event featuring RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.
Adriene Thorne said organizers presented the gathering as an interfaith event focused on peace and cooperation.
Thorne and Shamsi Ali said they were not told Bhagwat or the RSS would be involved.
Bhagwat addressed about 5,000 Hindu Americans and Hindu non-resident Indians at Madison Square Garden.
Ali called Bhagwat’s peace remarks “lip service,” citing alleged discrimination and violence against minorities in India.
- Who
- Mohan Bhagwat; faith leaders Adriene Thorne, Winnie Varghese, and Shamsi Ali; and event organizers including the World Council of Religious Leaders, AHEAD Forum, Bawa Jain, and Dileepji Kumar.
- What
- Faith leaders said they were misled or not informed that Bhagwat would headline an event they understood to be interfaith.
- When
- The event took place on Saturday; Thorne discussed her concerns in a social media post on Wednesday.
- Where
- Madison Square Garden in New York City.
- Why
- The leaders said organizers withheld Bhagwat’s involvement and the RSS or Hindu-nationalist connections, preventing them from making an informed decision.
Faith Leaders’ Account
Organizers’ Public Framing
Disclosure of Bhagwat’s role
Faith Leaders’ Account
Thorne and Ali said they were not told Bhagwat would be the central figure or chief guest, while Varghese said colleagues were similarly uninformed.
Organizers’ Public Framing
The event was presented to invited religious figures as an interfaith gathering focused on peace, human dignity, cooperation, and multiple religious traditions; the articles provide no direct organizer response to the allegations.
Character of the gathering
Faith Leaders’ Account
The leaders said the event’s RSS and Hindu-nationalist connections were withheld and that their presence could be interpreted as support for the ideology.
Organizers’ Public Framing
AHEAD Forum describes itself as a nonprofit promoting civic engagement among communities in the United States, according to its website.
Bhagwat’s peace remarks
Faith Leaders’ Account
Ali called Bhagwat’s peace rhetoric “lip service” and said it contradicted alleged discrimination and violence faced by Muslims and other minorities in India.
Organizers’ Public Framing
Bhagwat spoke about peace at the event, but the articles do not provide a detailed defense of his remarks or a response from him.
- Event names
- “Universal Oneness Celebration” and “One World One Humanity”
- Venue
- Madison Square Garden, New York City
- Attendance
- About 5,000 Hindu Americans and Hindu non-resident Indians
- Featured speaker
- Mohan Bhagwat, chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
- Faith leaders
- Adriene Thorne, Winnie Varghese, and Shamsi Ali
- Organizers mentioned
- World Council of Religious Leaders, American Hindus for Engagement and Dialogue Forum, Bawa Jain, and Dileepji Kumar
- Leaders’ response
- Thorne, Varghese, and Ali expressed regret; Ali said he would not have attended had he known Bhagwat was being honored
