Former deputy prime minister and senior BJP leader L.K. Advani lauded former president Pranab Mukherjee’s address at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur as a “significant event in our country’s contemporary history.”
In a statement, Mr. Advani said Mr. Mukherjee’s visit to the RSS headquarters despite his decades of association with the Congress was a reflection of his “grace and goodwill.”
“It was an illuminating exposition of the noble idea and ideals of Indian nationalism,” Mr. Advani said, describing Mr. Mukherjee’s address.
As a lifelong “swayamsevak” of the RSS, said Mr. Advani, he believed that Mr. Mukherjee and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat “have truly set a praiseworthy example of dialogue transcending ideological affiliations and differences.”
‘Resonance in views’
There was “significant concord and resonance” in the views expressed by both Mr. Mukherjee and Mr. Bhagwat.
“Both of them highlighted the essential unity of India, which accepts and respects all diversities, including the pluralism of faiths,” he said.
Mr. Advani also expressed his happiness over the RSS under Mr. Bhagwat expanding and intensifying its efforts to reach out to various sections of the nation in the spirit of dialogue.
Significantly, Mr. Advani’s own rather generous praise of Pakistan founder M.A. Jinnah in that country in 2005 was greeted with sharp protests by the Sangh Parivar.
‘Needed dialogue’
“Such conversations, conducted in the spirit of openness and mutual respect, will surely help in creating a much-needed atmosphere of tolerance, harmony and cooperation to build an India of our common dreams,” he said.
Referring to Mr. Mukherjee, he said, “His own reflective nature, combined with his long and varied experience in public life, have made him a statesman who strongly believes in the necessity of dialogue and cooperation among people of various ideological and political backgrounds.”