Oppn stays away from RSS outreach event, calls it attempt to project it is 'not hated'

The opposition stayed away from the three-day RSS outreach event that started here on Monday alleging that it has a "pre-election agenda" to project that the outfit is "neither untouchable nor hated".

None of the opposition leaders turned up for dialogue at the event -- "Bhavishya Ka Bharat - An RSS Perspective" -- organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological fountainhead of the ruling BJP, even though the Sangh had claimed to have invited many of them.

Many opposition leaders, including those from the Congress said they did not get any invite and would have stayed away even if invited.

The event comes three months after former president Pranab Mukherjee addressed a function at the Sangh's Nagpur headquarters in June.

Sources said this event was aimed at opening up the RSS for dialogue with such forces that are opposed to it.

It was speculated that Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who attacks the RSS often and accuses it of spreading hatred in the country, would be invited for the event, but the party leaders denied having received any invite.

When asked about the RSS event, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh downplayed it saying, "I got no invitation from the RSS (for the three-day lecture series). No mail, no phone call, no letter. Even if they invited me, I would not have gone."
RJD leader Tejashvi Yadav tweeted, "What role RSS played in freedom movement of India? Cozying up with invaders or spying for Britishers (sic)."
Congress spokesperson Gaurav Gogoi said on Twitter, "From the horse's mouth - 'Mr Modi has allowed RSS the opportunity to get at state power' - PM Modi has become a Trojan Horse for the RSS to infiltrate Indian constitutional institutions. People of India will fight back in 2019 (sic)."
Another Congress leader Salman Anees Soz said, "The world knows about the role of the Congress in the freedom movement. It is the RSS the world wants to know more about. For example, that inconvenient part about love for Nazism and Fascism."