Rahul Gandhi takes on RSS, says ‘murderers’ can’t preach nationalism

Jorhat (Assam) : Launching a scathing attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday alleged that the people, who shot dead Father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi, are not well placed to preach others about the concept of nationalism.

The Congress vice-president, who arrived here today on a two-day visit to Assam, alleged that it was the people from the RSS, who shot three bullets in the chest of Mahatma Gandhi.

“These are the same people, who used to ask for forgiveness in front of the British. And today these people are telling others to take the license of nationalism from them. I don’t need any license from such people,” said Gandhi.

“I want to tell these people the more they try to suppress the youth of this country, the more they try to force their ideology, the youth of this country will stand against you in the same manner,” he added.

He also used the recent JNU incident to target the RSS.

“What the government is doing is they call a student in Hyderabad University (Rohith Vemula) as ‘anti-national’ and order the university to throw him out of the campus. They pressurise him so much that he ultimately had to commit suicide,” Gandhi said while addressing a rally here.

“The same thing happened in IIT where a certain group of students speak something about the Dalits and what the Centre does is they tag them as anti-national,” he added.

Gandhi also voiced his support for Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students union president Kanhaiya Kumar, presently in police custody after being arrested on charges of sedition.

“The JNU president gave a very good speech of about 20 minutes where he talked about the poor, the marginalised section of the society. What the BJP-led Centre does is calls him ‘anti-national’ and arrests him. Wherever the youth talk against the RSS, their ideology, they tag them as anti-national,” said Gandhi.

“It seems that they have the license of nationalism. Only they can say that who is ‘nationalist’ and who is ‘anti-national’,” he added.

The Congress vice-president also used the occasion to reach out to the people in poll-bound Assam, saying the people associated with the RSS come to the state and voice opinion that there should be one ideology in the entire nation.

“If there is one ideology then what will happen to the diversity of this country. There is different ideology in every state and that should be respected,” said Gandhi.

“They said that the BJP would come in full majority in Bihar. They had to taste defeat and Narendra Modi ji never visited the state after the elections. They ran away from there because the people of Bihar told them that the RSS will not rule the state. The people of Bihar will rule the state,” he added.

The Congress vice-president’s visit to the state comes days after BJP president Amit shah blamed the incumbent government in the state for the continuing infiltration from Bangladesh.

Shah, who visited Assam last week, said that the BJP was determined not to let the illegals’ infringe upon the rights of people in Assam and the Bodoland region.

He also said Assam had been left behind on the development front the past 15 years when the Congress was in power.

The BJP president termed the alliance between his party and the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) a historic one and said it will go a long way in ensuring development in the state.

Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has been projected by the BJP as its chief ministerial candidate. (ANI)