Congress: RSS responsible for hate

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh and other senior leaders at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting on the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, at Sevagram, Wardha. Pic/PTI

Calling the RSS a blatant hypocrite, which rejected Mahatma Gandhi during his lifetime, and which today has brazenly proclaimed itself to be his champion, the Congress said on Tuesday that the RSS's ideology was responsible for spreading an atmosphere of hate that led to the Mahatma's tragic assassination. The party's Central Working Committee met in Sevagram from where the party had initiated a new chapter, 'Quit India,' under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. The CWC asked the people to join its mission of throwing the RSS's offspring, the BJP, out of power."

'Fight the politics of fear'
"We call upon all countrymen and women, particularly the young, to determinedly fight the politics of fear, intimidation, lies and deception - 'To never bend, to never stop; till we achieve our goal," the CWC said in the resolution passed in the presence of party president Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, former PM Manmohan Singh and other senior leaders.

"The CWC notes that appropriating the Mahatma's legacy may be politically expedient for some, but imbibing his principles and values in thought, word and deed is impossible for those who see in the Mahatma only electoral opportunities," it said, in a reference to the BJP's brainwave of appropriating the Mahatma through government schemes and events. The Congress resolution further said that one may borrow the Mahatma's spectacles for publicity campaigns, but implementing his vision will remain unfulfilled unless his principles are followed.

'Politics of threat and intimidation'
The party said a new freedom struggle was the urgent need of the hour - 'a massive movement to combat the forces of divisiveness and prejudice, to confront the Modi government whose politics is the politics of threat and intimidation, the politics of polarisation and divisiveness...'

It also invoked the Mahatma's sacrifice to neutralise the venom of communalism in India. "Less than six weeks after his death, with the nation still grieving, (the then) Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru met many prominent leaders as well as colleagues of Gandhiji in Sevagram, and urged for unity and commonality of purpose to address the fundamental issues dividing India. Pandit Nehru asserted that confronting danger and facing up to adversity is the Congress way."

Congress embodies the true Bharat
The resolution said the Indian National Congress truly embodied the ethos of 'Bharat' that is fundamentally inclusive, liberal, secular and an assimilation of India's plurality and diversities.

This is seen as an apparent attack on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's recent explanation that the sangh was all inclusive, and it had abandoned the 'hard-line' ideas of former RSS chief Golvalkar Guruji. Hitting hard at the Modi government, the Congress said it took inspiration from the Mahatma's unyielding commitment to listen to every voice, to defeat the forces that are today dominating the will of the people.

"Elections will come and go. But the ideological battle has to be relentless and unswerving. The CWC rededicates the Indian National Congress to this sacred task." It called upon the entire nation to fearlessly defend and uphold India's foundational values and the idea of India, which Mahatma Gandhi stood for, lived for and even sacrificed his life for.

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