'BJP, RSS have captured every institution, now fighting 'Indian state': Rahul Gandhi; Nadda says 'ugly truth exposed'
The Congress on Wednesday hit out at RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat over his remarks that India's 'true independence' was established not in 1947 but on Ram temple consecration day.
Terming Mohan Bhagwat's remarks an insult to all the Indians, the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi stated that the RSS chief has committed treason.
"Mohan Bhagwat has the audacity to say to the country what he thinks about the independence movement and the Constitution. What he said yesterday is treason... Because he is stating that the Constitution is invalid and the fight against the British was invalid," Gandhi said.
"He has the audacity to say this publicly. In any other country, he would be arrested and tried. That is a fact," he added.
Addressing party workers after the inauguration of the new Congress headquarters, Indira Gandhi Bhawan, the former Congress chief said that it is time that people stop listening to such "nonsense."
"To say that India did not get independence in 1947 is an insult to every Indian. And it is time to stop listening to this nonsense that these people think they can keep parroting out and shouting," Gandhi said.
Emphasising that the new headquarters symbolises the foundations of the Constitution, Gandhi said to his party workers that they are fighting a "civilisational war with" the RSS as the ideologies of the saffron fold and Congress are in conflict.
"One idea says India is a union of states. As we entered (the building), I saw all the national languages there equally placed together. There is no superior language, no inferior language, there is no superior culture, no inferior culture, there is no superior community, no inferior community, they are all the same. That is written in the Constitution and it is symbolised by this building. On the other side, there is the idea of a centralised knowledge.. of a centralised understanding," Gandhi said.
Stating that the BJP-led government has a vision of India completely different from that of the Congress, Rahul Gandhi said, "They want India to be run by a shady, hidden, secret society. They want India to be run by one man, and they want to crush the voice of the Dalits, the voice of the minorities, the voice of the backward castes, and the tribals. This is their agenda.”
Gandhi further said that the BJP and RSS have huge influence since they have captured every institution of the country, which is why the fight against them is not a "fair fight."
"Do not think that we are fighting a fair fight. There is no fairness in this. If you believe that we are fighting a political organisation called the BJP, that we are fighting a political organisation called the RSS, you have not understood what is going on," Gandhi said.
"The BJP and the RSS have captured every single institution of our country. We are now fighting the BJP, the RSS and the Indian state itself," he said.
Condemning Bhagwat's statement, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge warned that it would become difficult for him to move around in the country if he continued to make such statements.
"You would know that those people who had nothing to do with independence and did not fight for it are making such statements. I read the statement by the RSS chief. He said real independence was established with the inauguration of the Ram Temple. He had inaugurated the temple along with (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi... Modi believes that independence was achieved in 2014 when he became PM," he said.
"RSS people believe that independence was established with Ram Temple inauguration. It is a matter of shame that even though we got independence in 1947 they are not acknowledging it because they did not struggle for it, go to jail, and therefore they do not remember. We remember because our people died for independence and struggled for it," Kharge said.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had said that the date of Ram temple consecration in Ayodhya should be celebrated as "Pratishtha Dwadashi", as the "true independence" of Bharat, which faced "parachakra" (enemy attack) for several centuries.
Ugly truth exposed: BJP reacts
The BJP reacted to Gandhi's statement, BJP president J P Nadda claimed that the Congress' "ugly truth" has been exposed by its own leader.
Nadda alleged on X that it is not a secret that Gandhi and his ecosystem have close links with urban naxals and the deep state who want to "defame, demean and discredit" India.
He said Gandhi's repeated actions have also strengthened this belief.
Everything he has done or said has been in the direction of breaking India and dividing our society, Nadda said.
Nadda added, "Hidden no more, Congress' ugly truth now stands exposed by their own leader". "I 'compliment' Mr.Rahul Gandhi for saying clearly what the nation knows- that he is fighting the Indian state!" he said.
The BJP president charged that the Congress has a history of encouraging all those forces who want a weak India.
"Their greed for power meant compromising the nation's integrity and betraying the trust of the people," Nadda said, adding, people of India are wise, and they have decided they will always reject Rahul Gandhi and his rotten ideology.