by  Bhupen Goswami

GUWAHATI : Criticizing former president Pranab Mukherjee for attending the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) event at Nagpur, veteran Congress leader and former chief minister Tarun Gogoi said that in view of the ideology the former president follows, he shouldn’t have attended the programme. The news of Mukherjee participating in the concluding ceremony of the third year ‘Sangh Shiksha Varg’ of the RSS created uproar in the power corridors. Sarmistha Mukherjee, daughter of the former president, also lashed out at him for attending the RSS event. A number of senior Congress leaders also expressed displeasure over Mukherjee’s visit to the RSS event. However, after the speech by Mukherjee, Congress “changed their tune” and said that the former president has “shown mirror to the BJP-RSS”. Addressing the gathering of RSS workers and supporters, Mukherjee said that “any attempts at defining our nationhood in terms of dogmas and identities of religion, region, hatred, and intolerance will only lead to dilution of our national identity”. Gogoi said that Mukherjee is “aware” of the “dogmatic ideology” preached and practised by the RSS and it is “completely different” to what he has followed during his tenure as a president. “A man of his stature shouldn’t have gone to the RSS event. People now will think about him in a different manner,” Gogoi said. The former chief minister also criticised Mukherjee for mentioning RSS leader KB Hedgewar as a “great son of Mother India.”