Amid a raging controversy over former President and Congress veteran Pranab Mukherjee attending its event, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat today said this was a "meaningless" debate and that no one was an outsider for his organisation.
Speaking ahead of Mukherjee's speech, Bhagwat said Mukherjee would remain what he was and the Sangh would remain the Sangh even after the event.
"The Sangh remains the Sangh and Pranab Mukherjee will remain Dr Pranab Mukherjee. We do not discriminate between Indian citizens. No Indian citizen is outsider for us. RSS believes in unity in diversity,” he said.
The RSS chief also cautioned Sangh activists that power, in the absence of humility, can become destructive and that power without ethics become uncontrolled.
Bhagwat said it was the RSS's tradition to invite eminent persons to their functions and said the debate surrounding Mukherjee's visit was uncalled for.
“We invited him. He acknowledged our feelings and gracefully accepted the invitation. And now talks that why he has been invited, why he is going. It is useless. It is baseless,” Bhagwat said.
He further said there could be different viewpoints or different ways to serve the nation.
“There are times when we have differences. But we are all sons of the same soil. We are all the same even in this diversity,” Bhagwat said.
He also mentioned that RSS founder participated in various activities, including Congress agitations during the freedom movement.
Bhagwat said his organisation wanted to unify the entire society and no one was an outsider for it.
Bhagwat said the Sangh has inviting prominent people to its event every year.
Those present at today's event also included former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri's son Sunil Shastri, as also Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's nephew Ardhendu Bose along with his wife and son.
Earlier in the day, Mukherjee described Keshav Baliram Hedgewar as a "great son of Mother India' as he visited the birthplace of the RSS founding Sarsanghachalak.
"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 ahead of his much-anticipated speech at the RSS headquarters here.
While the Sangh is often described as a Hindu right-wing organisation, it calls itself a nationalist and cultural organisation rather than a political or religious one. It was founded by Hedgewar , on September 27, 1925 on Vijayadashami Day at his house here.
The name 'Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh' was selected for the organisation on April 17, 1926 from a list of four names -- Jaripatka Mandal, Bharat Uddharak Mandal, Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh, and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Mukherjee had to walk through narrow lanes to reach the house where Hedgewar was born and also removed his shoes before entering the place.
Mukherjee, who reached Nagpur last evening, has been invited by the RSS to address its Shiksha Varg and attend a parade by the Sangh workers on completion of the training camp.
It is an annual training camp, meant for swayamsevaks in their third year in the organisation. The RSS holds training camps for first, second and third-year swayamsewaks.
Mukherjee's decision to attent the RSS event has already triggered a major political slugfest with several Congress leaders criticising his decision.
Senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel today expressed his disapproval at former president Pranab Mukherjee visiting the RSS headquarters in Nagpur and said he did not expect this from him.
Mukherjee's daughter and Congress leader Sharmistha had yesterday said her father was giving the BJP and the Sangh a handle to plant false stories with his decision to speak at the RSS event.
His "speech will be forgotten" but the "visuals will remain", she said on Twitter. She also expressed the hope that the former president would realise how the BJP's "dirty tricks department" works and warned him of the consequences of attending such a meet.
Some Congress leaders, including Jairam Ramesh and C K Jaffar Sharief, also wrote to him, while a few leaders of the party, including Anand Sharma, personally visited him in a bid to dissuade him from going to Nagpur.
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