Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Monday said that as former President Pranab Mukherjee has accepted an invitation to attend an RSS event at its Nagpur headquarters, he should take the opportunity to tell them what is wrong with their ideology.
He also said that there was no point in asking why Mukherjee had accepted the invitation.
"Now that he has accepted the invitation, there is no point in debating why he accepted it.
"The more important thing to say is, Sir you have accepted invitation, please go there and tell them what is wrong with their ideology," said the former Union Minister.
The RSS invite to Mukherjee sparked off a controversy, as the Congress and left leaders expressed unhappiness over his acceptance while the BJP and RSS saw nothing wrong in it.
Former Union Minister CK Jaffer Sharief in a letter to Mukherjee had urged him to reconsider his decision and avoid attending the event in the interest of secularism.
He also asked him if the RSS has accepted what Mukherjee had said as a Union Minister about the Sangh being the "worst outfit", "communal", "anti-national" and "unpatriotic".
Congress spokesperson Tom Vadakkan on Tuesday did not comment on Mukherjee's acceptance of the RSS invite.
On Wednesday, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala, who was a former parliament colleague of Pranab Mukherjee, requested him to refrain from visiting the RSS headquarters on June 7.
"I am writing this letter to request you to refrain from visiting the RSS meeting on June 7. I am extremely sorry to say that the decision of yours to attend the function organised by a communal outfit has come as a rude shock to the secular minds in this country. Their vision of creating a Hindu Rashtra is in sharp contrast to the Congress ideology and secularism," he said in a letter.
"Being one of the tallest leaders in the Indian National Congress, your decision has invited unparalleled disgruntlement in the rank and file of the Congress party. As a person who has served as the first citizen of the country and the greatest ambassador of secularism, I request you to reconsider your decision to attend the RSS meet on June 7th," added Chennithala, the Leader of Opposition in the Kerala Assembly.