Declaring war against the RSS and its “parivar”, Mr Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said a reinvigorated Cong-ress alone can “smash” the BJP and its ideological mentor.
Declaring war against the RSS and its “parivar”, Mr Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said a reinvigorated Cong-ress alone can “smash” the BJP and its ideological mentor. The RSS does not know what it is going to face in the coming weeks and months and years, he said.
“For the first time in the history of our country, a fascist organisation that is openly opposed to the ideology and values of the Constitution has acquired decisive power over the Union. The stated purpose of the RSS is to establish a theocratic, autocratic state in India. To achieve this goal, it has to destroy the current liberal, progressive, secular, social democratic republic,” Mr Gandhi said. He added, “They have demonstrated in the last 18 months that they are prepared to use the very power of the republic to destroy it.
This is an unprecedented challenge and crisis facing all Indians.” Maintaining that the Congress is ready for the battle, he said, “Secularism is in the blood of the Congress and it simply cannot be removed... This is the DNA of our organisation and we just have to reinvigorate that and you will see Congress defeat, and not just defeat, but smash RSS and BJP.”
Winding up a two-day national conference in the run-up to the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, he said the challenges ahead are not insurmountable but it would “not be a fair” assessment that the Congress was not fighting the RSS because the Congress was the “biggest force” fighting it.
Mr Gandhi also said there was a false impression among scholars, intellectuals and historians who participated in the meet that the RSS had beaten the Congress. “We are viewing this somewhere as a victory of the RSS. We are viewing this as RSS having beaten us. This is false. RSS does not (know) what it is going to face in the coming weeks and months and years,” he said.
Seeking to reach out to progressive intellectuals and scholars, he said the time had come for the Congress and them to re-establish the relationship and have a discussion to bring out ideas that are going to help the party defeat the RSS. “There is actually no distinction between you and us... There is a false barrier here between us... A lot of my friends here said why hasn’t Congress done this and why hasn’t Congress done that. But you also have to look towards Congress and realise that it deals with the equation of power. Cong-ress is forced to deal with the equation of power, and that changes many, many things... I cannot just wish away the idea of power. It exists. And I have to open up to the idea of power,” he said as he sought to respond to complaints that the party had not acted proactively in certain situations.
Taking exception to what he claimed were some BJP-ruled states trying to ban people without degrees from contesting panchayat elections, the Congress vice-president said, “With what face does the BJP ban people without degrees from fighting panchayat elections in some of their states ”. Mr Gandhi also targeted RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, criticised Doordarshan’s telecast of his Dussehra address and also made an apparent reference to the FTII row.
