Page 35 - English Tehelka Issue 12 - June 30, 2018

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Pranab’s visit to RSS HQs Nagpur. His address and Dr Bhagwat’s

address are in a way complementary
generates heat to each other. Nation First is the core
message of both.” Dubbing Mukher-
jee’s speech as that of an ‘elder states-
man’, one RSS spokesperson said: “We
Former President Pranab Mukherjee’s acceptance of the RSS invitation to address welcome his speech and the points
Hard new recruits has unintendedly drawn flak and publicity at the same time among he raised on issues such as national-
ism, patriotism, and the need to end
LIne political analysts all types of intolerance and violence.”
According to media reports, BJP vet-
Anil Singh he furor generated in the af- Liberally quoting from Jawaharlal eran L K Advani described Mukherjee’s
termath of former President of Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore, Kautilya, visit and his illuminating exposition
India, Pranab Mukherjee’s ac- Lokmanya Tilak and Surendranath Ba- of the noble idea and ideals of Indian
The columnist is ceptance of the RSS invitation nerjee, a former Congress party president nationalism at RSS headquarters as
Executive Editor of T to address new recruits of the during the British Raj, Pranab Mukherjee, “a significant event in our country’s
News24 news organisation at its headquarters in Nag- in the course of his half-an-hour ad- contemporary history.” • Trolls over visit: Former president’s visit led the RSS in a good light, the streaming
channel. The views pur is not subsiding even after his speech dress delivered in English, delved into The Congress, which has initially to media frenzy and trolls on social media live visuals of Bhagwat and Mukherjee
here expressed are the there on June 7, which is being applauded the concepts of nationhood, nationalism opposed Mukherjee’s acceptance of sitting on the same dais, talking about
author’s own by top-brass RSS office-bearers as well as and pluralism. His speech entailed veiled invitation from the RSS, changed its inclusiveness, diversity and plurality.
the BJP but has evoked mixed reactions messages for multiple audiences. He stance after the speech of the former Mukherjee’s presence provided cred-
from the Congress and is critically looked cautioned that any attempt to define India President of India at Nagpur. While years, declining popularity of Prime ibility and endorsement to the Sangh as
upon by the Left parties. through “religion, dogma or intolerance” echoing its endorsement of some of the Minister Modi, and emerging larger a “social-cultural organisation”, an im-
Mukherjee’s decision had drawn criti- would only dilute the country’s existence. points raised by Pranab Mukherjee, a than life images of Modi-Shah duo age that very few among the non-BJP/
cism from several senior Congress leaders To the RSS, the former President recalled senior Congress spokesperson said: “As eclipsing the BJP. Sangh believe in.
who had expressed surprise over his deci- “vasudhaiv kutumbakam” (the world is Indians and as Congressmen, we en- According to one analyst, Pranab While describing Mukherjee’s
sion to visit the RSS headquarters, includ- one family) as the soul of Indian national- courage and believe in the democratic Mukherjee has been a difficult politi- speech at Nagpur, generally hailed by
ing his daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee, ism; to new Sangh recruits he spoke of dialogue and recognise the right and cal personality to gauge and it is in this his detractors, in fact, predictably tame,
a Delhi Congress spokesperson, who had the need for harmony; to his parent party sanctity of dialogue across different backdrop that his real motive behind one political analyst has pointed out
also tweeted against the visit. However, Congress, he emphasised the need for thought processes but a dialogue is only the visit to the RSS headquarters in that the speech had flashes of lively
some experts have insisted that Mukher- dialogue and to PM Narendra Modi, he possible in a democratic order with an Nagpur on June 7 may never be re- points but otherwise, the speech was
jee was no longer bound to seeing issues quoted Kautilya’s lessons in governance. open mind and willingness to change, vealed. Nonetheless, the same analyst formal and staid so as not to upset the
through a political or partisan prism as He also used the occasion to drive home accept and adapt to the other person’s has further opined that Mukherjee hosts too much and at the same time,
his active association with party politics “diversity and acceptance” as the bedrock point of view.” Nevertheless, some lead- would have factored in the net effect of careful not to concede any major point
Mukherjee’s ended after he became President in 2012. of Indian nationalism. ers of the Congress are still critical of his Nagpur sojourn on the Congress’s that they are often keen about. It is
Pranab Mukherjee’s move of going to
While describing the Constitution of
battle plans for the 2019 Lok Sabha
further pointed out that by using the
decision Political Message India not merely a legal document but RSS headquarters. elections. framework of nation, nationalism and
had drawn The introductory speech of RSS chief Mo- a Magna Carta for the socio-economic Way Ahead presence of former President Pranab patriotism, the former president with-
One critic has opined that the
transformation of society, from which
out necessarily being discourteous to
han Bhagwat, as well as speech of Pranab
criticism from Mukherjee, entailed political message flows “our nationalism,”Pranab Mukher- In the immediate aftermath of former Mukherjee at the RSS event was as his hosts, could have touched upon the
several senior for different quarters. While calling the jee also commented on the “routine of president Pranab Mukherjee’s accept- political as it could get, even though contemporary — the post-independ-
controversy over Mukherjee’s acceptance violence” in the country, saying India may
ance of invitation to visit RSS at Nagpur, functionaries of the RSS and the BJP
ence challenge of being nationalist and,
Congressmen of invitation as “unseemly”, the RSS chief be the fastest growing economy but it was a couple of critics had hypothesised may debunk the observation. The fact simultaneously, democratic.
Another analyst has pointed that
and his daughter asserted that there could be difference of lagging on the World Happiness Index. Mukherjee’s move as exemplifying remains that the event coincided with even after having risked his reputa-
opinion and debate but one must keep the Mukherjee said as he marvelled the fact
Buddhist notion of (seeking ongoing attempts by the Opposition to
Sharmistha who decorum. Asserting that for one destina- that 1.3 billion Indians used 120 languages, shelter under Sangh); nevertheless, build an anti-BJP narrative to counter tion, having taken the trouble to go to
had expressed tion, people could take different paths, 1,600 dialects, followed seven major soon after Mukherjee’s erudite speech the “new BJP” under Prime Minister Nagpur, Mukherjee did not make much
religions, belonged to three ethnic groups
and RSS chief’s explicit exposition that
Modi and party chief Amit Shah.
of himself except that, for the record,
Mohan Bhagwat said that diversity was
surprise over good for India. He also underlined RSS’s and still stood united under one flag, one Sangh is Sangh and Pranab Mukher- politicians spin it, another critic opines he said all the politically correct things
Asserting that whichever way
and in contrast, his host seized the op-
commitment to “unifying” society and
Constitution and one identity — “This is
jee is Pranab Mukherjee, these critics
his decision to that the imprint of Indian culture can be Bhartiyata.” lost no time in debunking their own that the optics of Mukherjee presiding portunity admirably. For the first time
visit the RSS seen on all Indians. According to some tisan support with BJP general secretary hypothesis and starting saying that it over the event is a big victory for Sangh, perhaps, the RSS was getting extraordi-
Pranab Mukherjee’s speech got bipar-
nary nationwide publicity.
was vice versa in view of RSS’s growing making the right-wing organisation
experts, this entailed a veiled message of
headquarters caution for Narendra Modi government’s Ram Madhav tweeting soon after: “Great disenchantment with Modi govern- appear tolerant and the Congress in-
present policies. address by Dr Pranab Mukherjee at ment’s performance of the past four tolerant. It’s a smart move that has put letters@tehelka.com
tehelka / 30 june 2018 34 www.tehelka.com tehelka / 30 june 2018 35 www.tehelka.com
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