Pranab's silence on Mahatma Gandhi's assassination at RSS event speaks volumes: Sitaram Yechury

Pranab Mukherjee's speech has not gone well with CPI(M) general secretary and former Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury who attacked the former president for not mentioning Mahatma Gandhi and his assassination in his speech.

"In the "history capsule" delivered by Pranab Mukherjee at the RSS headquarters, the absence of Mahatma Gandhi and his assassination speaks volumes," tweeted Sitaram Yechury.

Yechury also said that Mukherjee should have reminded RSS of its own history.


"He would have done well to remind the RSS of its own history - banned thrice by Congress governments, first time by Sardar Patel, following Mahatma Gandhi's assassination. "RSS men expressed joy and distributed sweets after Gandhiji’s death", Patel wrote to Golwalkar," said Yechury in a thread of tweets.

In about his half an hour speech, Mukherjee has deliberated on the concept of nation and nationalism besides other issues and went on to quote Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.

"Gandhi ji had explained Indian nationalism was not exclusive nor aggressive nor destructive," said Mukherjee.

Quoting Nehru, the former president said, "It was this very nationalism that Pandit Nehru so vividly expressed in the book 'Discovery of India', he wrote, "I am convinced that nationalism can only come out of the ideological fusion of Hindu, Muslims, Sikhs and other groups in India."

He also said that any attempt at defining our nationhood in terms of dogma and identities or religion, region, hatred and intolerance will only lead to dilution of our identity.