The recent engagement with RSS by one of the topmost Congress leaders of the country, Pranab Mukherjee has not been taken well by Rahul Gandhi, the President of Indian National Congress. The disdain is evident after Pranab Mukherjee was not invited to the Iftar Party.
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The invitation to speak at an event organised by the RSS was accepted by the former President of India, which had angered the leaders of Congress party and some leaders had even distanced Mukherjee from the party. It seems Rahul Gandhi has found a way to punish the dissidents, who do not concur with the same views as the first family of the party.
Just ahead of the event in Nagpur, senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel had tweeted that he “did not expect this from Pranab Da”. Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee had also taken to microblogging site Twitter, warning her father of the consequences of him attending the RSS event. She had said that words would be forgotten while pictures would remain, alleging that the BJP and the RSS might use the pictures of the event in future for political gains. The ‘faux-liberals’ on Twitter too had a meltdown as Pranab Mukherjee had delivered his speech.
It seems that the topmost leaders are not happy with giving any space to RSS, as it would be detrimental to their efforts of creating any narrative in the next general elections.
Even former vice-president Hamid Ansari is missing from the list of people called for the Congress event. Arvind Kejriwal or his Aam Aadmi Party too does not figure on the list of the invitees of the iftar party. The iftar, which is being organised by the Congress’s minority wing, will take place in New Delhi’s Taj Palace hotel on June 13.
This event is seen as yet another attempt to appease minority religious groups ahead of next general elections. It is also interesting to see that, many leaders of opposition parties have also been invited. The Congress party is trying hard to build a coalition of parties against BJP to fight in the next general elections.