Fake photo shows Mukherjee performing RSS-style salute
Heavy rains lash parts of the country FORMER PRESIDENT SIMPLY STOOD STILL DURING RECITATION OF ORGANISATION’S PRAYER
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Aday after former Indian president Pranab Mukherjee attended an RSS event in Nagpur, social media was yesterday flooded with a fake photo of Mukherjee saluting in the RSS style during recitation of Sangha Prarthana (RSS prayer).
In reality, Mukherjee simply stood still during the prayer recitation even as Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members around him, including its chief Mohan Bhagwat, stood with one hand folded horizontally at the chest level.
A few Congress leaders, including Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmistha, expressed anguish at the morphing of the photo, saying they had feared as much and shared the real picture showing Mukherjee standing upright alongside the fake one.
“See, this is exactly what I BJP veteran L.K. Advani yesterday described former president Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to the RSS headquarters and his “illuminating exposition of the noble idea and ideals of Indian nationalism” as a “significant event in our country’s contemporary history”.
Advani lauded Mukherjee, who has had decades of association with the Congress, for accepting the invitation of the Hindutva organisation and its chief Mohan Bhagwat for inviting him, saying there was significant concord and resonance in the views expressed by both of them.
As a lifelong ‘swayamsevak’ (volunteer) of the RSS, the BJP veteran said he believed that Mukherjee and Bhagwat have truly set a praiseworthy example of dialogue transcending ideological affiliations and differences. “Both of them highlighted the essential unity of India, which accepts and respects all diversities, including the pluralism of faiths,” he said in a statement.
Advani said Mukherjee showed grace and goodwill in accepting the RSS invite. was fearing and warned my father about. Not even a few hours have passed, but BJP/RSS dirty tricks department is at work in full swing,” Sharmistha lashed out on Twitter as she shared the two pictures.
Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad seconded Sharmistha as he tweeted that her “apprehensions about RSS were 100 per cent correct when she said the ‘speech will be forgotten but visuals will remain’”.
However, the RSS hit back saying “some divisive political forces” that did not want Mukherjee at the RSS event were behind the morphed photo. “Some divisive political forces have posted a morphed photo of Pranab Mukherjee ...,” RSS Sahsarkaryavah (Joint General Secretary) Manmohan Vaidya said in a statement.
“These forces initially tried to create an opposition to make Mukherjee refrain from attending this function. And now these frustrated forces are doing all such dirty tricks to defame RSS,” he added.
‘Dirty tricks’ condemned
He said that the organisation “denounces and strongly condemns” such dirty tricks.
Mukherjee on Thursday addressed the RSS cadre at the conclusion of their three-year training programme called ‘Tritya Varsh Varg’ at the organisation’s headquarters in Nagpur.