Pranab’s daughter slams Cong leader over Sangh remarks

Former President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee has criticised Congress leader Danish Ali for his comments on the approval for a memorial for the late President.

Amid the row between the BJP and the Congress over a memorial for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Modi government had recently allocated a site for the memorial of Pranab Mukherjee, who passed away in 2020.

Later, former MP Danish Ali had accused the BJP-led Central Government of indulging in “dirty politics”. In a post on X, Ali alleged that the government’s decision was a gift to Pranab Mukherjee for his “love for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

“Pranab Mukherjee had bowed his head at the Nagpur headquarters of the RSS and conferred the title of

“Dhartiputra (son of Earth)” on Sangh founder Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. Mukherjee had also played an important role in getting Savarkar’s picture installed in the Parliament House,” Ali added.

Reacting to the charge, Sharmistha Mukherjee said the Congress should have come out with something better. She said, “If Pranab Mukherjee was an RSS agent, why was he allowed to be a stalwart leader of the Congress for 45 years? Are Congress high command – starting from Indira Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi – such fools that in 45 years, they could not make out that Pranab Mukherjee was an RSS agent?”

“My father passed away over four years ago. If this memorial is linked with his RSS visit, why would the government wait for four years?” she asked.

Expressing gratitude towards the Prime Minister for the memorial, she said that her father and Modi shared a bond that was beyond politics.

“My father used to say that state honours cannot be demanded or asked for. It should be offered. As a family member, we never made any kind of demand or wrote to the PMO for creation of his memorial. It was an initiative undertaken by the Government of India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” she said.