Not much difference in Pranab Mukherjee, Bhagwat's views: Ram Madhav

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) general secretary Ram Madhav on Wednesday said that there was not much difference between the views of Pranab Mukherjee and Mohan Bhagwat at the recently held Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) event.

Terming the Congress party's reaction over the same as "unfortunate", Madhav told ANI that RSS is open to dialogues, hence they invited the former president.

"RSS has always been very open organisation. It extended an invitation to former President and he attended their progress and conveyed his views to RSS members and leaders. Most of his views were similar to views expressed by RSS chief. We didn't see much difference in views of both leaders. There are things on which there can be disagreements but that's the beauty of RSS. Irrespective of the difference of opinions it's open to dialogue with all eminent people, so they invited Pranab Da. What's really unfortunate was reactions of Congress and so-called liberals," he said.

On June 7, Mukherjee attended the Third Year Sangha Shiksha Varga (SSV) event, organised at RSS headquarters in Nagpur, and addressed the RSS workers.

A political slugfest had erupted after Mukherjee accepted RSS' invitation to be the chief guest at the event.

Several Congress leaders had then urged the former president to reconsider, while others said his visit could create an "undesirable difference" in the country.

At the RSS event in Nagpur, Mukherjee spoke on the concepts of nation, nationalism and patriotism in the context of India.

He spoke about the ancient institutions of India that attracted students from abroad as well.

However, later Congress leaders like P. Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Randeep Surjewala and others lauded Pranab Mukherjee for his speech at the event.