WBPCC chief says 'astonished' over Pranab's decision to attend RSS event

West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury today expressed surprise over former president Pranab Mukherjee's decision to attend an RSS event and said he was unable to relate it with Mukherjee's previous comments against the saffron organisation.

While the state Congress chief of Mukherjee's home state of West Bengal and others in the state who worked under him were astonished, the veteran leader's MP son Abhijit Mukherjee declined to comment on the issue.

"My question is does he (Mukherjee) think his previous comments against RSS were wrong...We still remember how Pranab Mukherjee as a senior leader of the Congress had criticised RSS as a communal and a divisive organisation," Chowdhury said.

 

Mukherjee, who is a Congress veteran, was invited to be the chief guest at the valedictory function of Sangh

Shiksha Varg, a training camp for RSS volunteers at the organisation's headquarters in Nagpur on June 7.

According to an RSS functionary, the former president accepted the invitation.

The veteran leader's son Abhijit Mukherjee, who is also a Congress MP from Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency in the state, declined to comment on the issue.

"I don't want to comment on this issue," he told PTI.

The WBPCC president said, "I'm really surprised to hear about the decision of Pranab Mukherjee to attend RSS's programme in Nagpur. Just like any other Congressman, I am really astonished to hear about it," Chowdhury said.

However, Mukherjee was no longer president, nor a Congress leader, and he was free to take any decision, he said.

"I can't say what prompted him to take such a decision," said Chowdhury, who shared a long association with Mukherjee.

The former president was two-time Congress MP from Jangipur Lok Sabha constituency of Murshidabad district from 2004-2012 and Chowdhury was the Congress president of the district.

Several state Congress leaders, who had worked under Mukherjee in West Bengal, said it was hard to believe that he would be attending RSS event.

"We have known Mukherjee for last several decades and a great admirer of his political and administrative acumen. But, this development has come as a shock for us. The principles of RSS are very much against the idea of secular India," said a senior Congress MLA.