Rahul Gandhi in London: RSS is trying to change the idea of India

In an incisive attack on the BJP’s parental organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Congress president Rahul Gandhi compared RSS to Egypt’s Sunni Islamist organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood, during his address at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London.

Blaming RSS for changing the basic tenets of the Idea of India, Rahul said, “RSS is trying to change the nature of India. Other parties haven’t tried to capture India’s institutions. RSS’s idea is similar to the idea of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world.”

In his first major political address in London, Rahul stressed that the BJP, at the behest of the RSS, has been in the process of changing the nature of institutions. There is no other organisation in India which wants to capture and change India's institutions, he asserted.

For the uninitiated, the Muslim Brotherhood, also referred to as MB, is an Egypt-based Islamist organisation, which believes in implementing Islamic law and is banned by the governments of several countries, such as Bahrain, Egypt, Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, said Rahul.

Blaming the RSS, Rahul said the idea of the demonetisation directly came from the RSS. “When one bypasses the entire institutional structure and decides to demonetise the nation, that is not maximising India's power. The idea of demonetisation came directly from RSS, bypassed the finance minister and RBI, and was planted in the Prime Minister's head,” he said.

Within hours, BJP issued a rebuttal. “You have said that the ideology of the government is that of the Muslim Brotherhood? Do you even know what the Muslim brotherhood is? It is declared a terrorist organisation in a number of countries. You are comparing it with the RSS and BJP. You’re a parliamentarian and the president of the Congress party,” said Sambit Patra, a BJP spokesperson, at a press conference in Delhi.

“The 2019 election will be straightforward — BJP on one side, Opposition on the other”

Later, speaking at the London School of Economics (LSE), Rahul said the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 will be fought along ideological lines. Addressing students, he said that the Congress will only ally with parties which shared the same values as it.

He added that the Lok Sabha elections would be “pretty straightforward” with the BJP on one side and the entire Opposition on the other. “The next election is going to be pretty straightforward — BJP on one side and the entire Opposition on the other side… I see this as an ideological battle. We will not ally with anyone ideologically on our platform,” pointed out Rahul.

“We need to defend Indian institutions, the idea of ‘one man, one vote’,” he asserted, while saying that the Congress needs to bring in millions of youth who believe in the values that Congress stands for and deliver to them an organisation that can work and can empower them to transform India.

On the upcoming Rajasthan elections, Gandhi said that the Congress party is looking at a health-care system and means to reach the young voters and urban Rajasthanis. Additionally, empowerment of small and medium industries and creation of jobs would be the priority of the party.

Expressing his concerns over the “low quality” of debates in the parliament, Gandhi said MPs should be empowered.

“We have hundreds of experienced politicians, but the conversation isn’t what you expect. If you look at the same Parliament in the 50s or 60s, there is a difference. Why?

The laws are made in the Prime Minister's office. We need to give the power of making laws to parliamentarians. Then the level of debate will change.”

You can watch Rahul Gandhi’s speech here:

This article was edited at 11.13 am to rectify a few grammatical errors