Pranab’s speech aftermath: How Congress repositioned to salvage lost ground

The Congress party on Thursday repositioned itself after some of its senior leaders targeted Pranab Mukherjee for attending the RSS function in Nagpur.

After Pranab Mukherjee’s speech, Randeep Surjewala, chairman of the Congress media cell in a press conference said that they hope RSS accepts the sagacious advice of Pranab Mukherjee and change its process and path.

Pranab Mukherjee has shown the mirror to RSS by reminding them of India’s pluralism, inclusiveness, secularism and tolerance, Surjewala said and added that former President reminded the Modi government of “Rajdharma’' founded on multiculturalism, non-violence, diversity and assimilation of ideas.

He also said that Congress believes in democratic dialogue and recognize the sanctity of dialogue across different thought processes, different position from the one expressed by senior leaders like Ahmed Patel and Jairam Ramesh. He said that the moot point is that is RSS willing to change?

Congress also used this as an opportunity to ask RSS whether they agree with Pranab Mukherjee’s idea of constitutional patriotism. BJP-RSS since coming to power have been advocating the idea of cultural nationalism which stands contrary to constitutional nationalism, he said.

The Congress also posed a number of questions on nationalism and pluralism and asked RSS whether they would commit to the idea of Pranab’s view of plural society and nationalism. Congress also emphasized the point that former President spoke about violence in the present public discourse and requested that it should be freed of both verbal and physical forms of violence.

Many in the Congress believe that party leaders should not have jumped the gun and waited for Pranab Mukherjee’s speech. Nonetheless, by end of the day, Randeep Surjewalan repositioned the Congress Party to salvage the lost ground.