Pranab Mukherjee at RSS event: An ode to bipartisan dialogue? Here's what his list last speech hints at

As the country wonders what former President Pranab Mukherjee might say at Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh headquarters in Nagpur today, his last speech as President in 2017 reflects the thoughts and concerns that had engaged him throughout his over five-decade-long political career. In his last speech as the President, Mukherjee had expressd his concern about increasing violence and how darkness, fear and mistrust was at the heart of this violence. While pluralism along with environment and inclusion engaged Mukherjee last year as he readied to hang up his boots after a very successful career, his first speech as President in 2012 was markedly different and focussed mainly on poverty, terrorism and corruption. The first topic Mukherjee touched in his 2012 speech was poverty after making the same overarching statement on basic fundamentals for a modern nation - democracy, secularism and equality.