Stumped by former President Pranab Mukherjee’s decision to address RSS members in Nagpur next week, the Congress continued to be in a fix over the way to react.

While senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said that now since Mukherjee is ready to go to the RSS headquarters he should preach them the wrongs in their ideology, leader of Opposition in Kerala Ramesh Chennithala said it will be a blemish on the question of secularism.

“Now that he has accepted invitation there is no point debating why he accepted it. More important thing to say is, sir you have accepted invitation, please go there & tell them what is wrong with their ideology,” said Chidambaram on Mukherjee’s proposed visit to the RSS headquarters. Chidambaram and Mukherjee were Cabinet colleagues in the Manmohan Singh Government.

For his part, in a letter addressed to Mukherjee, Chennithala said that the decision to attend the function has come as a “rude shock to the secular minds” even as he requested the former President to ‘refrain’ from going to Nagpur.

Calling the RSS a ‘communal outfit’, Chennithala accused the Sangh of working towards creating “a Hindu Rashtra comprising of only one section of the people which is against the Congress ideology of secularism and democracy”. Chennithala further said the decision coming from one of the tallest leaders of the party has caused unparalleled disgruntlement among the rank and the file of the Congress

Congress leaders Adhir Chowdhury and Hanumantha Rao also expressed surprise over Mukherjee’s decision. “I am really surprised to hear about the decision of Pranab Mukherjee to attend RSS’s programme in Nagpur. Just like any other Congressman, I am really astonished to hear about it,” Chowdhury said in Kolkata.

“My question is does he (Mukherjee) think his previous comments against RSS were wrong ... We still remember how Pranab Mukherjee as a senior leader of the Congress had criticised RSS as a communal and a divisive organization”. However, Mukherjee is no longer President, nor a Congress leader, and he is free to take any decision, he added.

Rao said the former president should withdraw his decision “in the interest of secularism”.

Former Union Minister CK Jaffer Shareif too had on Tuesday written to Mukherjee expressing surprise over the move and saying he like other secular people was “stunned” to hear about his attending the RSS function.

“I personally think that a person of your stature, being secular and in politics for decades, having served in various capacity including the highest position of Rashtrapati, visiting Sangh Parivar at this point in time before Parliament elections is not proper,” he said.

Former MP and Delhi Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit also said that as a Congress leader and minister, Mukherjee has spoken about the RSS and the BJP many times on various issues and dubbed it as “bad”and “worst” outfit, which is “communal” and “anti-national”.