Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s remarks comparing the RSS with radical Islamist outfits in Pakistan drew a sharp riposte on Wednesday from the BJP, which slammed the Congress leader and hailed the Hindutva outfit as the “world’s biggest school of patriotism”.
Slamming Gandhi over his remarks against RSS, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said that Gandhi will take a long time to understand the RSS, whose role is to effect good changes in people and inspire patriotism in them.
Gandhi during an interaction with India’s former chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu had on Tuesday said RSS uses schools run by it to push a particular worldview like the radical Islamists in Pakistan do in madrassas.
Gandhi had said that the BJP and RSS are taking away the institutional framework of the country. Following up on this, Youth Congress tweeted: “Independent institutions in Indian democracy are under attack by one mother institution of RSS.”
He dismissed Gandhi’s acknowledgment that the Emergency imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi was a ‘mistake’, asking for how many things Gandhi will tender an apology. He also brought up the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
This, however, wasn't the first time that the Congress leader had made controversial remarks about the RSS. In 2016, the Supreme Court had asked Gandhi to apologise for his remarks blaming the RSS for Mahatma Gandhi's assassination or face a defamation case. The court had then observed that he should not have carried out a collective denunciation of an organisation in this matter. Gandhi had later told the court through his lawyer that he never accused the RSS as an institution for Mahatma Gandhi's killing.
Gandhi has also faced a defamation case in Maharashtra over his remarks against the RSS after the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru in September 2017.
(Published 03 March 2021, 14:33 IST)
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