KOLKATA: The number of applications for joining RSS shot up to more than fourfold the day former President
Pranab Mukherjee addressed the graduating swayamsevaks in Nagpur on June 7. RSS has sent a letter to Mukherjee, thanking him for his visit and the speech despite “opposition from his own people”.
The letter from Sangh saha sarkaryavah Manmohan Vaidya lauded Mukherjee’s opinion about “one India” and “Indian culture”. It was sent to the former president’s residence on Monday.
Vaidya, who spoke to RSS karyakartas in Bengal before he sent the letter, wrote that the programme was telecast across the country after some people started opposing his visit. Not just senior Congress functionaries, Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmistha, too, opposed his visit to the event at the RSS headquarters. “The speech will be forgotten, visuals will remain and those will be circulated with fake statements,” she had tweeted.
Sharmistha, however, refused to comment anything on the RSS letter to her father on Monday. Vaidya wrote that Mukherjee stood up and introduced himself.
“His simplicity touched everyone,” he wrote. Throughout the letter, Vaidya addressed Mukherjee as ‘Pranabbabu’, adding that the outlook of Mukherjee and Mohan Bhagwat is similar. In the end, he also mentioned the spurt in people’s interest in joining the Sangh.
“On an average, we had 378 applications per day between June 1-6 on the Sangh’s website. But on June 7, the number shot up to 1,779 and the largest chunk was from Bengal,” said an RSS member from Bengal.
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