Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, ignited a major controversy on Wednesday by declaring that the Congress party is now fighting the "Indian state." His comments were made during the inauguration of the Congress' new party headquarters in New Delhi.
Rahul Gandhi emphasized the ideological struggle, claiming that Congress was not merely battling the political forces of the BJP or RSS but was up against the Indian state's entire institutional structure. He said, "Our ideology, like the RSS ideology, is thousands of years old, and it has been fighting the RSS ideology for thousands of years. Do not think that we are fighting a fair fight. There is no fairness in this. If you believe that we are fighting a political organisation called the BJP or RSS, you have not understood what is going on. The BJP and the RSS have captured every single institution of our country. We are now fighting the BJP, the RSS, and the Indian State itself."
These remarks quickly attracted sharp reactions from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda responded, accusing the Congress party of attempting to weaken India. "Hidden no more, Congress? ugly truth now stands exposed by their own leader. I 'compliment' Mr. Rahul Gandhi for saying clearly what the nation knows?that he is fighting the Indian state!"
During the same speech, Rahul Gandhi also addressed controversial remarks made by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, who had recently claimed that India achieved its "true independence" when the Ram Mandir was consecrated in Ayodhya last year. Gandhi labeled Bhagwat's statements as treasonous, suggesting that they undermined India's fight for independence and the legitimacy of the Constitution. "Mohan Bhagwat has the audacity to inform the nation every 2-3 days what he thinks about the independent movement, Constitution. What he said yesterday is treason because it states that the Constitution is invalid, and the fight against the British was invalid. He has the audacity to say this publicly; in any other country, he would be arrested and tried," Gandhi asserted.
