RSS visit: Tell us what was evil about RSS then that has become virtuous now, Tewari asks Mukherjee

After much consternation and unease within the Congress over Pranab Mukherjee's visit to RSS headquarters, party leader Manish Tewari today asked the former president why he chose to go there and deliver "homilies on nationalism" after having cautioned young Congressmen like him against the Sangh.

Taking to Twitter, the former Union minister posed some stinging questions to Mukherjee as he asked what was evil about the RSS then that has now become virtuous, and if the former president was attempting "to mainstream" the Sangh.

Drawing parallels, he said after the 1938 Munich pact, the other countries had the false notion that they had bought peace with the Nazis, who overran Europe.

Tewari also told the veteran Congressman that whatever the motivation behind the visit, it will be seen as an attempt to mainstream RSS in secular and pluralistic consciousness.

"May I ask you a question that you still have not answered that is bothering millions of secularists and pluralists. Why did you choose to go to the RSS headquarters and deliver homilies on nationalism?
Tewari said "either what we were told then was wrong or your lending respectability if not legitimacy to RSS by the act of association is not kosher given your stature in public life. Was it an attempt at ideological rapprochement/lowering bitterness in political firmament/positioning as cynics suggest."