TMC fumes at Pranab Mukherjee for attending RSS event, says its “unacceptable”

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) said that it was "pained" by Pranab Mukherjee's decision to attend RSS event in Nagpur yesterday (June 7), adding that the former president did injustice to his "political stature" by doing so.

Mukherjee attended an RSS event in Nagpur amid criticism by several of his party leaders including his own daughter.

"When the entire country is fighting against the divisive politics of RSS, Pranab Mukherjee's decision to attend RSS event has left us astonished," a News 18 report quoted TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee as saying.

"This is really unacceptable from a person like Pranab Mukherjee. We are really pained by his decision. I personally feel he has himself meted out injustice to the political stature he had achieved in last several decades," Chatterjee added.

The Congress, on its part, said that Pranab Mukherjee had shown the 'mirror of truth' to the RSS by reminding them of India's 'pluralism, tolerance, secularism and inclusiveness' as an article of faith and soul of the country.

Pranab Mukherjee, at the event in Nagpur on Thursday, warned that any attempt to define India through "religion, dogma or intolerance" will only dilute the country's existence.

During the course of a nearly 30-minute speech delivered in English, Mukherjee delved into the concepts of nationhood, nationalism and patriotism; and liberally quoted Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore, Kautilya, Lokmanya Tilak and Surendranath Banerjee, a former Congress party president during the British Raj.