London: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday compared the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) with the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist terror organization, and said the RSS wanted to “capture” every institution of the country.
The RSS was trying to change the very nature of India, he alleged.
Rahul Gandhi was speaking at an event in London in the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS). Gandhi said: “We are fighting an organisation called the RSS, which is trying to change the nature of India. There is no other organisation in India that wants to capture India’s institutions,” he added.
Gandhi said: “What we are dealing with is a completely new idea. It is similar to the idea that exists in the Arab world in the form of Muslim Brotherhood. And the idea is that an ideology should run through every institutions, one idea should crush all other ideas.”
Citing a few examples, he said: “You see the response of four Supreme Court judges, who came out and said ‘we are not being allowed to do our work’. You see Raghuram Rajan (former RBI Governor) and the shock of demonetisation. You can see India’s institions being torn down one by one. That requires a response, a response that has to include all who value what India has achieved,” he said.
Gandhi said the decision on demonetisation bypassed every single institution. “Demonetisation was an attack on small and medium businesses, which is India’s real power,” he said.
“It took a week for economists to figure out what has been done (by demonetization). The RBI was not spoken to, the finance minister didn’t know of it. The cabinet was locked up. The idea came from the RSS directly,” he said.
On lessons learnt from the electoral defeat in 2014, Gandhi said: “That you have to listen, the leadership is about listening, leadership is about empathy. At a party level, I think there was a certain degree of arrogance that had crept into the Congress. So, never forget that the party is actually the people. That’s a lesson for every body in the Congress,” he added.
Besides that Rahul Gandhi while addressing the Indian Overseas Congress on Thursday in Berlin, said that “the government which is now ruling in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, want to divide and spread hatred in the country. The Congress party will not let this happen”.
Gandhi said the strength of India lies in listening to the views of every citizen, despite religion, section of the society and caste.
On the other hand, taking strong exception to Rahul Gandhi’s emark, the BJP on Friday attacked Congress President Rahul Gandhi for comparing the RSS with the Muslim Brotherhood and accused him of possessing hatred against the current government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The kind of words and thinking that Gandhi is using in foreign countries is very saddening,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sambit Patra told media.
“Have you taken a contract against the ‘idea called India’, its culture and the Indian government,” Patra questioned.
The BJP leader said that what Gandhi has done in UK is “unforgiveable”.
“Muslim Brotherhood is a declared terrorist organisation in many countries. And you compared the Muslim Brotherhood with the BJP and the RSS. India wants to know if it is being ruled by a terrorist organisation. Have the 125 crore people of country voted for a terrorist party?” he asked.
The BJP leader was referring to Gandhi’s remarks about BJP and RSS while addressing the students in the Strategic Studies Institute in London.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi in UK said, “We are fighting an organisation called the RSS, which is trying to change the nature of India. There is no other organisation in India that wants to capture India’s institutions.”
Attacking the Congres leader, Patra said, “Rahulji you have no maturity and understanding of India. You have no facets. The only quality you possess is hatred against the BJP, the RSS and Modi,” he said.
“In 2013, a year before the elections, Congress leaders accused the BJP and RSS of running terror camps,” he said.
“Why such hatred towards democracy?” the BJP leader questioned. He also said that the Congress in 2013 called the opposition terrorists and today “they are describing the government as terrorists”.
He said the current BJP government follows the principle of ‘Sabka saath, sabka vikas’.
“Rahulji must apologise to the people of the country,” Patra said.