New Delhi: On August 29, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat addressed more than 5,000 American Hindus and non-resident Hindu Indians at Madison Square Garden at an event titled “One World One Humanity”.Both the before and after timelines of the event have been especially dramatic.The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and allied community and faith organisations held a press conference in New York on August 25 to protest against Bhagwat’s event. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani also opposed the event publicly.Now that the event has concluded, two religious leaders in the United States who appeared alongside Bhagwat at the event said that the organisers had not told them that the Hindutva leader would a part of the event.In a video message she released on September 2, Adriene Thorne, a minister of the Riverside Church, said that she was duped into participating in the event. Thorne said that she received repeated invitations over six weeks from a group called The World Council of Religious Leaders. She said that the organisers described the event as an interfaith gathering.“I was never told that the RSS was involved, I was never told about AHEAD or any organisation connected to Hindu nationalism,” she said. Thorne described her appearance at the event as a “terrible mistake” she said in a video statement released after the event.RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and others during the New York event on August 30. Photo: @ParmarthNiketan/X via PTIShe said the programme sent to participants had left the space for the “guest of honour” blank and that she later learned it had been reserved for Bhagwat.“Had I known the event centered on the leader of the RSS, I would never have participated,” Thorne said.Her statement was followed by a clarification from Imam Shamsi Ali, a prominent New York-based Muslim cleric and interfaith leader, who said his attendance at an associated breakfast gathering at The Pierre Hotel had been a “serious error in judgment”.Ali said he had been invited to a gathering themed “One World, One Humanity” and had not been informed that Bhagwat would be its central guest.“Had I known the event was organised to honour Mohan Bhagwat, I would have declined immediately,” he said, adding that he refused to attend the gathering’s continuation at Madison Square Garden after learning more about its nature.The scrutiny continuesNew York Times reports on September 3 citing Ali that he felt “kind of betrayed” after attending the breakfast session with Bhagwat. The report confirms that in a “dozen emails sent to the faith leaders between July and August”, the organisers did not mention the RSS or Bhagwat.The invitations were coordinated by Bawa Jain, who describes himself as an interfaith leader, is associated with a body that calls itself the World Council of Religious Leaders and the Center for Responsible Leadership.As per the Times, Thorne contacted Jain after she realised what had happened and asked for an explanation. She told the paper that Bawa said Bhagwat’s “security” concerns prevented the disclosure.“That’s not a reason to hoodwink people,” Thorne said.Jain told the newspaper he was not sorry for having honoured Bhagwat and that he had known for a year that he would be at the event which he had pursued religous leaders to attend.“I wanted the world to hear directly from his mouth,” Jain told the Times.The paper spoke to another member of the breakfast gathering who went from there to join the demonstrators who had gathered to oppose Bhagwat’s event at the venue.Attendees oppose inclusion in post-event ‘declaration’A dossier circulated after the event has alleged that Jain has longstanding connections with organisations associated with the Sangh Parivar. It points to his involvement in previous religious gatherings attended by RSS and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders, including a “Millennium World Peace Summit” held in 2000 and a Hindu-Jewish leadership summit held in New Delhi in 2007.The dossier also claims that the invites urged attendees to wear traditional religious attire, which it claims suggests that the RSS, from the beginning, was clearly interested in a photo-op and little else.The invitations repeatedly asked people to contribute “commitments” – those “commitments” ended up being compiled and read by Mohan Bhagwat as a declaration, and were immediately published in the Organiser, its mouthpiece.Invitees were not told that commitments sent in would be released by the head of the RSS.The dossier also alleges that Jain’s interfaith organisations have presented themselves as independent platforms while maintaining relationships with figures and institutions connected to the Sangh.(This story has been updated.)