Cong booklet calls RSS names, targets BJP

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) sympathises with Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse. RSS ideologue V D Savarkar was an atheist. RSS is irresponsible and has no place for women. Most RSS workers are unaware of its dark side.

It is with these statements printed in its campaign booklet that the Congress plans to attack the BJP’s ideological parent. The 108-page booklet has been prepared by the research department of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) for use during the party's Lok Sabha poll campaign.

"The RSS’ biggest conspiracy unfolded right during the freedom struggle when it opposed the Congress’ Quit India movement,” the booklet states. “The RSS was even ready to come out with its own Constitution, in which it supported the caste system as propagated in the Manusmriti. This was titled ‘Manu Rules over Hearts’.”

The booklet also highlights “failures” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, while highlighting "achievements" of the Congress, especially during 10 years of the Congress-led UPA regime. The document also underlines achievements of the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government as well as those of the Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka.

The Congress has repeatedly targeted the RSS, using it synonymously in its attacks on the BJP. The RSS is a Hindu nationalist volunteer-driven organisation founded by physician-turned-political activist K B Hedgewar in 1925.