The apex body of Catholics in India on Thursday questioned the genuineness of a quote, relating to conversions and tribal communities, that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has reportedly attributed to former President Pranab Mukherjee.
Bhagwat reportedly said in a speech in Indore on Monday that he had met Mukherjee at a time there was a ruckus in Parliament over "ghar wapsi" — people returning to Hinduism from other faiths — a trend that organisations linked with the RSS were aggressively promoting.
Bhagwat quoted Mukherjee as saying: "What are you people doing? This creates controversy. Because this is politics. Had I been in the Congress, not holding the President’s post, even I would be protesting in Parliament."
The RSS chief added: "Then he said, 'But this work that you have done, because of that 30 per cent tribals….' I understood the line he was taking and I was happy…. I said, '…would (otherwise) have become Christian?' He said, 'Not Christian, but anti-national'."
In a statement, the Catholic Bishops Conference of India said: "Fabricated personal conversation being attributed to a former President of India and its posthumous publication with the vested interest of an organisation with questionable credibility raises a grave issue of national importance.
"Is it not the violent Ghar Wapsi programme of VHP and other similar organisations, curtailing the exercise of freedom of conscience of economically deprived tribals, the real anti-national activity?
"It also raises the issue whether the alleged statement was in the scheme of things when the former President Pranab Mukherjee was invited to one of their programmes. Why Mohan Bhagwat did not speak when Dr Pranab Mukherjee was alive? The intention seems to be diabolic, sinister and not genuine.
"We do not believe the statement to be true and spoken by the former President, because we hold him in great esteem for his contribution to the nation and the respect for pluralistic secular ethos of our motherland.
"It is unfortunate that the thrice banned organisation, attached with the kind of violent Indian history as has (been) seen over the past several decades, is allowed with impunity to call the non-violent, peace-loving and service-oriented Christian community as anti-nationals."
The CBCI added: "The real issue is the right to exercise freedom of conscience, a fundamental right under Art. 25, by the tribals and other vulnerable who too are entitled to live a life with human dignity as enshrined in the Constitution of India. Calling them anti-nationals for exercising their fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution exhibits the hidden motive and malicious agenda.”
Mukherjee had been chief guest at the Vijaydashami event of the RSS in Nagpur in 2018, the year after his presidency ended.
In his speech, he had said: "This nation and nationalism (were) not bound by geography, language, religion, or race."
He also quoted Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rabindranath Tagore and others to drive home the point that Indian nationalism was secular.
Bhagwat has also been widely condemned for his remark on Monday that January 22, the day last year the Ram temple in Ayodhya was consecrated, should be celebrated as the day India secured "true independence".