RSS distributed sweets on the day Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated: Congress

With the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) continuing to attack Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi over his comments about the organisation's involvement in the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, the grand old party asserted that it was a known fact that the RSS was against the Mahatma's ideology of peace and harmony.

Congress leader Rizwan Arshad told ANI that the party is going to fight the RSS and its ideologies tooth and nail, as it is an organisation that works for its own convenience.

"It is a known fact that the RSS distributed sweets the day Mahatma Gandhiji died. It is a known fact that Nathuram Godse was a member of the RSS and it is a known fact that they were upset with Gandhiji because he wanted to keep this country united and that he wanted all religions to live in harmony," Arshad said.

"The RSS wanted bloodshed and it is their ideology that killed Mahatma Gandhi," Arshad added.

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has alleged that Rahul Gandhi was compromising his own credibility with his critical remarks against the RSS and asked whether he would be able to accept the allegation that the grand old party was involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

"If Rahul Gandhi's logic is taken to a logical conclusion, then can we say that the Congress is responsible for the massacre of Sikhs in this country? In 1984, we are aware that Congress leaders were involved in massacre of Sikhs. But if we say that the Congress was responsible and it was a part of the Congress' conspiracy, will Rahul Gandhi accept this?" BJP leader Sudesh Verma told ANI here.

The Congress vice-president yesterday said that he stands by his comments on the RSS and would never stop fighting its "hateful and divisive agenda".

"I will never stop fighting the hateful and divisive agenda of the RSS. I stand by every single word I said," he tweeted.

Rahul Gandhi's counsel Kapil Sibal on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the Congress leader had not blamed the RSS as an 'institution' for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, but the people associated with it.