THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Kerala chief minister
Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday condemned the visit of former President and Congress veteran
Pranab Mukherjee to the
RSS headquarters at Nagpur.
He also condemned Mukherjee's showering of praise on RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar.
Vijayan, senior CPM politburo member, said in a Facebook post that the former President's decision has come as a shock to nationalists "who keep the principles of secularism close to their heart."
His position and visit would only help and encourage those forces that try to build Hindurashtra, Vijayan said adding it should have been avoided.
The stand of Pranab Mukherjee that "dented the image of the post of president" could be seen only as a political move and so it is condemnable, Vijayan said.
Mukherjee's decision to attend the RSS event has already triggered a major political slugfest with several Congress leaders criticising his decision.
Earlier in the day, Mukherjee described Hedgewar as a "great son of Mother India' as he visited the birthplace of the RSS founding Sarsanghachalak in Nagpur.
"Today I came here to pay my respect and homage to a great son of Mother India," Mukherjee wrote in a visitor's book at Hedgewar's birthplace.
