In a surprising turn of events former President Pranab Mukherjee has agreed to attend an event hosted by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. The event is going to be held at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur on 7th June. Keeping up with the recently started chain of former competitors becoming friends, former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has been invited to speak at the World Hindu Congress which will be held in Chicago on September. The event is being organized to commemorate 125 years of the historic address given by Swami Vivekananda at the Parliament of World Religions. The invitation to Raghuram Rajan has been sent by the Sangh parivar organizations. Raghuram Rajan has returned to assume his academic career at the University of Chicago after his term as the RBI governor ended in September 2016. The invitation sent to Raghuram Rajan from VHP and other members of the Sangh parivar is a huge step forward. There were some visible differences between Rajan and Sangh leaders during his term as the RBI Governor under the then UPA-II rule. The relations didn’t even improve post the 2014 elections.
Frictions between Sangh and other senior BJP leaders with Raghuram Rajan continued throughout his two year long tenure post BJP’s win in 2014. Raghuram Rajan had been appointed as the RBI governor by the Congress party led UPA-II rule in September 2013. He had previously served as the Chief economist and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and also served as the Vice-Chairman of Bank for International Settlements. After Congress was badly defeated in 2014 Lok Sabha elections by the BJP, Rajan found it difficult to work with the new government which came in power. Subramanian Swamy and few other senior leaders from BJP criticized Rajan for his inability to work in sync with the BJP government at the centre.
The World Hindu Congress is held once every four years . It will be a three day event and many prominent personalities such as the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Hollywood star Richard Gere and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard will be attending it.
The former IITian who now heads the World Hindu Foundation, Swami Vigyananand said, “On September 11, the day the world will mark the attacks on twin towers, we want to ask people to choose between a religion that spreads hate and the one that preaches universal brotherhood”. Swami Vivekananda’s historic address to the World Parliament of Religions too had been delivered on September 11,1893 in Chicago.
Raghuram Rajan has been listed as a speaker at the ‘World Economic Conference’ which is a part of the event. The other speakers in this event include SpiceJet chairman Ajay Singh, Piramal Group Chairman Ajay Piramal and KPMG India Chairman Arun Kumar. According to sources Raghuram Rajan has confirmed that he will take time out from his schedule to attend the event. This will be a big blow to the Congress leaders who are still suffering from the impact of the former President Pranab Mukherjee’s assent to address RSS workers at its headquarters in Nagpur. The Congress leaders will now mindlessly start attacking Raghuram Rajan for trying to make mends in the once estranged relationship.