Rahul Gandhi claims no U-turn in his stand on ‘divisive’ RSS

Dismissing suggestions that he had made a U-turn over the role of the RSS in Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi insisted Thursday that he stood by “every single word” he had said earlier on the subject.

“I will never stop fighting the hateful & divisive agenda of the RSS. I stand by every single word I said,” he tweeted in the wake of media reports that he had taken a U-turn on Wednesday when his counsel informed the Supreme Court that he had never blamed the RSS as an organisation for the killing of Mahatma Gandhi, but only that a “few individuals in the organisation” were behind it.

Before Rahul’s tweet, information and broadcasting minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said Thursday morning that wisdom had prevailed upon the Congress vice-president. “Good, Rahul finally admitted before Supreme Court that RSS is not accused in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi... Wisdom has prevailed. It may be a U-turn but a good turn. RSS a patriotic organisation. RSS — Ready for Self-Service anywhere, anytime,” Mr Naidu tweeted.

Mr Gandhi had on Wednesday tried to set the record straight by informing the Supreme Court that he had never blamed the RSS as an institution for killing Mahatma Gandhi, but those associated with it were behind the assassination. He buttressed his stand by citing paragraphs from his affidavit filed in the Bombay high court, while challenging the summons issued to him as an accused for his alleged defamatory statement in a 2015 election rally speech in Maharashtra.

Senior advocate and Congress leader Kapil Sibal, who appeared for Mr Gandhi, cited the affidavit filed in the high court, saying he had only accused certain RSS people and not the organisation. “I never made the statement that the RSS killed Mahatma Gandhi, but persons associated with the RSS had killed him,” the senior advocate told the court on Wednesday, on Mr Gandhi’s behalf.

Earlier Thursday, AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh dismissed suggestions that Mr Gandhi had made a U-turn on the RSS, saying the party vice-president stood by his assertion that those who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi were from the organisation. “No U-Turn by Rahul Gandhi on RSS. He stands by what he said. Person who killed was from RSS. It is the ideology of hate and violence which killed Mahatma Gandhi,” Mr Singh said in a series of tweets.

Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said what had been stated by Mr Gandhi at the rally was exactly what he had articulated in court and even put in the affidavit before the Bombay high court. “So there is no inherent contradiction at all. The difficulty is that the RSS and BJP believe in fighting political battles in courts of law, and therefore the legal battles will be dealt with legally.”

He added: “They believe in using defamation as a tool... The BJP will be well advised to look at the advice which the Supreme Court yesterday gave to the Jayalalithaa government (to) stop using instruments of coercion and intimidation to fight political battles.”