GUWAHATI: A local court in Guwahati on Saturday issued summon to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in connection with a defamation suit filed against him by the RSS over his remark against it pertaining to his visit to the Barpeta Satra in December last year.
He has been asked to appear before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kamrup on September 29.
An RSS volunteer, Anjan Bora, had filed the case against Gandhi claiming the Congress vice president had tarnished the image of RSS.
Gandhi had kick-started the Congress’ Assembly poll campaign in Assam with a foot march in Barpeta. When he reached the western Assam town in a chopper from Guwahati, he drove to the Satra to offer his prayers but did not enter the Vaishnavite monastery on seeing a group of women signing religious songs in front of its gate.
He went back but paid a visit to the Satra later on that day at the end of his foot march and a rally which he addressed. Subsequently, he went back to Delhi and a few days later accused the RSS of preventing him from entering the Satra.
“When I went to Assam, I wanted to visit a temple in Barpeta. But the RSS people stopped me from entering it,” he had then alleged. He had charged the RSS with assigning the group of women to prevent his entry into the Satra.
That day, Gandhi had walked up to a place, some 50 meters short of the Satra’s main entrance. In front of it, some 20 women were seen singing religious songs when Rahul reached the spot and even before that.
He didn’t go up to the entrance and the then Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi later asserted that they did not want to confront the women as that would have created an unpleasant situation.
The Congress had sniffed the hand of the “BJP-RSS” in the incident. The party had alleged, “It’s a carefully-engineered opposition by the BJP-RSS where a section of people in the Satra were parties”.