Fake photo shows Pranab doing RSS salutation; Congress, RSS trade charges

New Delhi: A day after former President Pranab Mukherjee attended an RSS event in Nagpur, the social media was on Friday flooded with a fake photo of Mukherjee saluting in the RSS style during recitation of Sangha Prarthana.

In fact, Mukherjee had stood in an attention position during recitation of Sangha Prarthana as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) members around him, including its chief Mohan Bhagwat, stood with one hand folded horizontally at the chest level.

A few Congress leaders, including Mukherjee's daughter Sharmistha, expressed anguish at the morphing of the photo, saying they had feared as much and shared the real picture showing Mukherjee standing upright along with the fake one.

"See, this is exactly what I was fearing and warned my father about. Not even few hours have passed, but BJP/RSS dirty tricks department is at work in full swing," Sharmistha lashed out on Twitter as she shared the two pictures.

Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed seconded Sharmistha as he tweeted that her "apprehensions about RSS were 100 per cent correct when she said that the 'speech will be forgotten but visuals will remain'".

However, the RSS hit back saying "some divisive political forces" that did not want Mukherjee at the RSS event were behind the morphed photo.

"Some divisive political forces have posted a morphed photo of Pranab Mukherjee...," RSS Sahsarkaryavah Manmohan Vaidya said in a statement.

"These forces initially tried to create an opposition to make Mukherjee refrain from attending this function. And now these frustrated forces are doing all such dirty tricks to defame RSS," he added.

He said that the organisation "denounces and strongly condemns" such dirty tricks.

Mukherjee on Thursday addressed the RSS cadre at the conclusion of their three-year training programme called ‘Tritya Varsh Varg' at the organisation's headquarter in Nagpur.