A morphed photo of former President Pranab Kumar Mukherjee is being circulated on social media after his visit to the RSS headquarters in Nagpur. He is seen standing on the podium, along with RSS head Mohan Bhagwat and others, wearing a black cap and giving an RSS-style salute.
Mukherjee, in fact, had not given the salute nor worn the cap.
Meanwhile, RSS blamed "divisive political forces" for first trying to make former President Pranab Mukherjee "refrain" from attending its event and then for posting a morphed photograph. "Some divisive political forces have posted a morphed photo of former President Dr Pranab Mukherjee standing in a prayer position with a folded hand during recitation of Sangha 'prarthana' (prayer) at yesterday's RSS function at Nagpur," the Hindutva organisation's joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya said in a statement.
Mukherjee's visit has become controversial as many Congress leaders including the former President's daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee had asked him to abandon the event.
Sharmistha, reacting to the photoshopped image, tweeted: "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!"
— Sharmistha Mukherjee (@Sharmistha_GK) June 7, 2018
BJP Mahila Morcha national executive member Priti Gandhi, replying to Sharmistha tweeted: "There is a huge possibility that you have photo shopped these pictures yourself just to prove a point to your dad after your public outrage against him!! No one is buying your story!!."
— Priti Gandhi (@MrsGandhi) June 7, 2018
— Shakeel Ahmad (@Ahmad_Shakeel) June 8, 2018