The long row over Pranab Mukherjee’s attendance at RSS event ended yesterday with his eloquent speech on Nation, Nationalism and Patriotism. He spoke about the continuity of Indian civilization despite several attacks by ‘Muslim invaders’ and British colonialism. During his speech, he said, “India was a state long before the concept of the European Nation State gained ground after the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.” This is a huge setback for the Congress and Nehruvian intellectuals who believe that India came to existence after Nehru authored ‘Discovery of India.’ He also hailed the founder of RSS, Dr. Hedgewar, as a ‘great son of mother India’. He also gave a valuable lesson to the Congress that RSS is not untouchable and discrimination and ostracizing someone on the basis of ideology is not right. In a democracy, dialogue is necessary. He in fact endorsed many ideas and philosophy of the RSS.
All sorts of abuses and virulent criticism were thrown at former President for going to Nagpur. Some people went to the extent of questioning his knowledge of economics and his tenure as President and Finance Minister. But after his speech they all did a complete turncoat and hailed Pranab Mukherjee for ‘teaching a lesson to the RSS.’
https://twitter.com/Shehzad_Ind/status/1004929218784837632
Today is a very fitting day to bring you all a primer on what the RSS really stands for. pic.twitter.com/m1oQ15nkDJ
— Congress (@INCIndia) June 7, 2018
Ideologically, both Mohan Bhagwat and Pranab Mukherjee seemed to be in sync. They both laid emphasis on Patriotism and Nationalism, the cultural influence of Hinduism, deep roots of Hinduism, pluralism, tolerance, acceptance, peaceful co-existence, etc. and fundamentally agreed with each other on most of these points.
But the question is that a morally and ideologically corrupt party like Congress outraged only because former President’s thoughts and the idea of India is similar to Mohan Bhagwat? This does not seem to be the case. It is also not about embarrassment which the Congress suffered. It’s not even the issue here as both the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family are used to such embarrassments now.
The Congress sees each person and every event with the spectacle of electoral arithmetic. For Congress, the value of an individual is only just of one vote. Their worry and protest were only because of electoral reasons. The main point here is that West Bengal has 42 Lok Sabha seats. Mamata Banerjee is confident of winning most of the seats. Time and again, she has pitched for a federal front that too without BJP and the Congress.
A third front without the Congress would be a disaster for the Rahul Gandhi’s PM ambitions. The split of votes would eventually benefit the BJP which will add insult to the injury of the Congress. The Congress thinks that Pranab Mukherjee can be a counterweight to Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal. He can pacify and control Mamata Banerjee. Both are from West Bengal and both enjoy a good relationship, although it has been occasionally rocky in the past. Mamata Banerjee respects Pranab Mukherjee and he has reciprocated her good will. She is the one who brought forth the idea to make Pranab Mukherjee the President of India during UPA II. Pranab Mukherjee also lauded the work done by Mamata government in Education and Health sector in West Bengal.
He has also extended help to Mamata Banerjee many times in the past. In 2017, when Mamata government organized flagship Bengal Global Business Summit not even a single union minister went to attend it but Pranab Mukherjee went to attend the summit. The Congress and the left openly lambasted and cursed the former President for attending the RSS event but Mamata Banerjee and the entire TMC maintained a stoic silence.
This association goes back a long way, and the Congress knows in case of need of any support from Mamata Banerjee only the former President Pranab Mukherjee can turn the tide in Congress’ favour. But the cause of worry for the Congress is that their Trump card had a lovely evening with the Sangh, yesterday.
