RSS condemns morphed photo of Pranab Mukherjee at Nagpur event, says 'frustrated forces' indulging in 'dirty tricks'

Soon after a morphed photo of former president Pranab Mukherjee surfaced on social media hours after his speech at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) event in Nagpur, the organisation on Friday condemned the emergence of the photograph. In the fake photo, Mukherjee is seen raising his hand up to his chest in the RSS way of salutation along with leaders of the organisation. In reality, the former president had only stood in attention. A press statement was released by Manmohan Vaidya, Sah Sarkaryavah of the RSS addressing the photo issue.

Press Statement Issued by Dr.Manmohan Vaidya, Sah Sarkaryavah of Sangh, in the context of a morphed photo of Sh Pranab Mukherjee posted by some divisive political forces. https://t.co/LmxyWLyCqF

— RSS (@RSSorg) June 8, 2018

“These forces initially tried to create an opposition to make Dr.Mukherjee refrain from attending this function and now these frustrated forces are indulging in all such dirty tricks to defame RSS. We denounce and strongly condemn the lowly act of these divisive political forces who are deliberately trying to defame RSS,” he said in the release. Following the appearance of the fake photograph doing rounds on social media, the blamegame also started with the Congress quickly grabbing the opportunity to attack the Right-wing organisation. Incidentally, the Congress charge was led by the former president’s daughter and Congress leader Sharmistha Mukherjee commented who tweeted that she feared and cautioned her father against the “dirty tricks department” of the BJP-RSS.

See, this is exactly what I was fearing & warned my father about. Not even few hours have passed, but BJP/RSS dirty tricks dept is at work in full swing! https://t.co/dII3nBSxb6

— Sharmistha Mukherjee (@Sharmistha_GK) June 7, 2018