New Delhi: At a discussion at the Chatham House in London, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, on a tour of the UK, called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) a ‘secret society’ that was built to subvert democratic processes.
“RSS is a secret society. It’s built along the lines of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the idea is to use the democratic contest to come to power and then subvert the democratic contest afterwards,” Rahul said on Monday evening.
“It’s shocked me how successful they’ve been in capturing the different institutions of our country. The press, the judiciary, Parliament, Election Commission — all the institutions are under pressure, under threat,” he added.
The discussions at the Chatham House, a London-based policy think tank, are usually guarded by the ‘Chatham House rules’ meaning that its contents are kept within the House and nothing anyone says can be attributed to them outside. However, an exception was made for this discussion and it was live-streamed.
Rahul also interacted with Members of Parliament, academics, journalists and community leaders at the UK Parliament. He shared a picture of a conversation over lunch with David Lammy, shadow foreign secretary of the Labour Party.
At the discussion in Chatham House, the Congress leader said that the RSS-BJP’s alleged subversion of Indian institutions is why he undertook the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
“When I joined politics in 2004, the democratic contest in India used to be between political parties. I’d never imagined at that time that the nature of the contest would change completely. The reason it has changed is because one organisation, called the RSS — fundamentalist, fascist organisation — has basically captured all of India’s institutions,” he said.
After criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for “insulting” India on foreign soil by talking about Chinese incursions, Rahul criticised Pakistan for “promoting terrorism in India”.
“My personal view is that we should have good relations with everybody around us. But that also depends on the actions of the Pakistanis. If the Pakistanis are promoting terrorism in India, that becomes very difficult. And that does happen,” he said at the Chatham House.
He also spoke about the Congress presidential elections in which Mallikarjun Kharge was elected as president, calling him a capable and dynamic person.
“Mr. Kharge was elected as president in an election that took place in the Congress party. We are all working together to fight the BJP, and I’m extremely confident in Mr. Kharge’s capabilities and his expertise. He’s been a Congress worker for many years. He’s come up the ranks. He’s an extremely capable and dynamic person,” Rahul said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)