Rahul Gandhi flays RSS, BJP on patriotism issue

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the RSS and the BJP dub as a traitor whosoever speaks or goes against their ideology.

"It seems only the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have the licence to say who is a traitor and who is a patriot," he said while addressing a public rally at Titabor in Assam's Jorhat district.

Gandhi arrived in Assam on Monday morning and addressed party workers in two meetings at Gohpur and Bihpuria before addressing the public rally at Titabor, the home constituency of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.

"I went to Hyderabad a few days back. A Dalit student, Rohith Vemula, committed suicide there. He did nothing wrong. He only said whatever he had in his heart and whatever he had to say. The ministers of the government of India ordered the university that he is a traitor and so he must be banned from the university, forcing him to commit suicide," Gandhi said.

"In Indian Institutes of Technology, a youth stands up and tells about the Dalits; the government of India says he is a traitor. The president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union spoke about the poor people, weak people, progress, Adivasis and development etc. What does the government of India say? It terms him a traitor."

The Congress leader said that whenever the youth speak out against the ideologies of the RSS and the BJP, they are termed traitors.

"It seems only the RSS has opened a shop of patriotism; only they can say who is a patriot or a traitor. They (RSS and BJP) are the people who fired three bullets at Mahatma Gandhiji. These are the people who bowed their heads before the British. Now they ask us to take lessons of 'deshbhakti' (patriotism)?" Gandhi said.

"But this is not fair. I want to tell them that more they pressurise the youth, more the youth will stand up against them and challenge them," he said.

"What is the meaning of Independence if the RSS can take away the voice of the youth...they have only one agenda - they want power."