From as far back as 1934, celebrated personalities with no affiliation to the Sangh or BJP have been a part of RSS events.
New Delhi: Former president Pranab Mukherjee is on a visit to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur Thursday where he will address the Sangh Siksha Varg, an annual training camp meant for swayamsevaks in their third year in the organisation.
The Congress veteran’s decision to visit the RSS headquarters has drawn criticism from all quarters with various party leaders, including his daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee, asking him to reconsider for the sake of secularism.
However, this isn’t the first time that a non-RSS/Jana Sangh/BJP leader has made such an appearance. The Sangh, in fact, claims to have always invited prominent people irrespective of their party affiliations.
ThePrint looks at some important outreach events by the RSS. Sometimes, as history shows, the outreach has also been from the other side.
* One of the earliest examples was former Central Provinces home minister Sir Moropant Joshi who attended the Sankranti event in January 1933, during RSS founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar’s era.
* On 25 December 1934, Mahatma Gandhi visited the RSS camp in Wardha where he participated in events organised by the outfit.
* In 1963, 3,000 swayamsevaks in uniform took part in the Republic Day Parade on the invitation of then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
* RSS functionaries had also participated in the Rashtriya Ekta Parishad meeting during 1965 Indo-Pak war. They were invited by then prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
* In 1977, the Vivekanand Rock Memorial — a tourist monument in Kanyakumari — was unveiled by then prime minister Indira Gandhi, who was invited by senior RSS functionary Eknath Ranade.
* In 2006, former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visited Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh, where he met RSS pracharak and social reformer Nanaji Deshmukh. Kalam had then praised Deshmukh’s efforts and the RSS-inspired initiatives for comprehensive rural development.
* The following year, former air chief marshal A.Y. Tipnis was invited to the Nagpur camp by then sarsanghchalak K.S. Sudarshan.
* In 2014, Kalam again accepted an invite from the RSS and on 31 July, visited its headquarters near Reshimbagh in Nagpur, where he offered tributes to Hedgewar.
* Former president Zakir Husain, Janata Party founder Jayaprakash Narayan and former commander-in-chief of the Indian Army Kodandera M. Cariappa, among others, have also been guests at various RSS events.