From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Sep 2: Within a day after former President Pranab Mukherjee was laid to rest, BJP has ridiculed senior Congress leaders in Karnataka Mallikarjuna Kharge and Siddaramaiah as to why the deceased former President had decided to participate in the RSS conference and address the RSS workers.

In a press statement in Bengaluru on Wednesday, BJP leader and former MLC Capt Ganesh Karnik said the reported reservations expressed by the state’s senior Congress leaders during a condolence meeting at the Congress party function over Mukherjee’s decision to address the RSS workers sometime back was very amusing.

The BJP leader sought to ridicule the Congress leaders by pointing out that the former President had "found a natural habitat in the RSS."

It is evident that both Kharge and Siddaramaiah could not conceal their dismay over former President’s address at the Third Year Officers Training Camp (OTC) at RSS national headquarters in Nagpur, Capt Karnik said.

"BJP is of the view that former President of India conveyed two different messages, one each to the RSS and to the Congress, by his decision to take part in the Sangh Shiksha Varga," he said.

To the Congress, Mukherjee meant to tell in no uncertain terms that he is sick and fed up of the politics of minority appeasement, the practice of pseudo-secularism, running down the cultural heritage of the country in the name of secularism and absence of national character in the country’s oldest political party, the BJP leader said.

He claimed that to the RSS, Mukherjee meant to tell categorically that he agreed with the RSS ideology of nationalism; inculcating national character in each and every individual and train the people to undertake service activities at times of national disaster selflessly.

"A true nationalist and a genuine patriot that Mukherjee was, he realised that the ideology of the RSS and the methodology it had adopted were the right means to ensure national renaissance and hence he took part in the RSS’ III year OTC camp," Capt Ganesh Karnik said.

The BJP leader went on to add that, "Pranabda, obviously, had found a natural habitat in the RSS. BJP hopes that the present-day Congress leaders also realise the importance of RSS in national life and shed their antipathy and hatred towards a genuine nationalist organization.’’