New Delhi, May 30 (DC): Former president Pranab Mukherjee accepting an invite from the RSS to be the chief guest at a function at the Sangh headquarters on June 7 snowballed into a row with a former Union minister urging him to reconsider his decision in the interest of secularism.

While the Congress refrained from making a comment on the issue, a party leader asked if the RSS accepted what the former president said as a minister and Congress leader about the Sangh being the “worst” outfit which was “communal”, “anti-national” and “unpatriotic”.

While a Union minister defended Mr Mukherjee’s decision saying the RSS is not Pakistan’s ISI and an “untouchable” and it was a “good beginning”.

The RSS, on its part, claimed even Mahatma Gandhi and Jaiprakash Narayan attended their functions and former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had invited its workers for the Republic Day Parade in 1963 after being impressed with its work.

Former Union minister C.K. Jaffer Sharif, in a letter to Mr Mukherjee, expressed surprise over the move and said he like other secular people was “stunned” to hear about his attending the RSS function.