Yechury barb at Pranab

Patna: CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Friday criticised former President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur.

“If asked, I would not have gone to attend the event,” Yechury said.

He questioned why Mukherjee’s speech skipped the RSS’s past.

The former Rajya Sabha MP took a dig at Pranab’s speech, saying there was no reference that the RSS took part in the freedom struggle, and its activities were many times seen as against the pluralistic culture of the nation.

“Gandhi’s assassination also failed to find any mention in his speech,” Yechury told reporters in Patna on Friday.

He echoed Pranab’s daughter and Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee, and warned: “Mukherjee’s speech will be forgotten but the visuals of his address will be used for political purposes.”

Pranab addressed the closing ceremony of the Tritiya Varsha Sangh Shiksha Varg, an RSS event to mark the conclusion of a three-year training camp for swayamsevaks in Nagpur on Thursday.

Yechury, however, lauded Mukherjee’s exposition of India’s historical diversity and for plainspeak on vigilante nationalism: “He mentioned the true idea of nationalism and stressed the constitutional principles as a cornerstone of our democracy.”

Courtesy: The Telegraph