While the Congress on Tuesday said party vice-president Rahul Gandhi would not tender an apology for his remarks against the RSS and would instead substantiate them with historical facts and evidence
While the Congress on Tuesday said party vice-president Rahul Gandhi would not tender an apology for his remarks against the RSS and would instead substantiate them with historical facts and evidence before the court to support his claim, the RSS hit back at both the Congress and Mr Gandhi, saying the Congress has consistently tried to “spread lies about it”.
“On a suggestion of Rahul Gandhi expressing regret or apology, the question does not arise. Such a suggestion has been made in the past and not accepted by Rahul Gandhi. Mr Gandhi is a mature politician with intimate knowledge of historical facts. The Congress party and Mr Gandhi will defend these remarks at the appropriate forum,” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said.
He said since the matter is pending adjudication, “we will not like to comment further on the issue”.
He added Mr Gandhi had challenged the constitutionality of the defamation proceeding besides the order of the Bombay high court wherein the summoning order was challenged. He said while the bunch of petitions challenging defamation provisions have been rejected, the challenge to the HC order is pending adjudication before the Supreme Court in a special leave petition. “The matter was listed today. The Supreme Court adjourned the hearing to July 27 without passing any order. Any remark exchanged at the bar between counsel for the parties and court cannot be commented upon as the matter is subjudice,” he said. At the AICC briefing, party spokesman Gaurav Gogoi said that “Rahul Gandhi has said that he will not seek an apology over what he has said and will fight the case as he wants to present his facts along with historical proof and evidence to prove his point and help bring out the truth before everyone that we all know.”
He added, “At this point, the Congress stands with Rahul Gandhi and we are confident that we will be able to present a strong case, present all the facts and historical evidence that we are supposed to make.”
Asked about the order of the Supreme Court, he said there is a case which is undergoing in the Supreme Court and the final judgment is yet to be heard and the case is also yet to be heard on its full merits, for which they are waiting.
“Today, the Supreme Court has made some observations. We would not like to comment on the observations. Nonetheless, we are confident that when the case would be heard on its merits, we will present historical evidence and documents that support Rahul Gandhi’s claim. We respect the Supreme Court.”
The RSS assailed Mr Gandhi for “avoiding trial” in the defamation case against him. The BJP also latched on to the top court’s ruling and asked Mr Gandhi to apologise to the country for “defaming a nationalist organisation”. “The Congress had been consistently trying to spread lies and baseless allegations about RSS. Today’s Supreme Court ruling has exposed the Congress... They (Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders) are avoiding the trial and are repeating the same false allegations against the RSS. It seems he does not have faith in India’s legal system and respect for it,” RSS leader Manmohan Vaidya said.
