Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday once again took a veiled dig at the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) saying that it does beleives that India is one idea whereas the grand old party believes that it is a multiplicity of ideas and this fight was crystallized in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections when people of the country understood that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was attacking the Constitution of India.
While addressing the Indian diaspora at the Toyota Music Factory here, Rahul Gandhi, who is on his first trip to US as Lwader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha said, “India and US both are union of states and no state can claim that it is the best. And similarly India’s national anthem doesn’t put any state as superior to any other.”
Taking a jibe at the RSS, he said that the RSS believes that India is one idea and we believe that India is a multiplicity of ideas. “We believe that everybody should be allowed to participate, allowed to dream, and should be given space regardless of their caste, language, religion, tradition, or history,” the Congress leader said.
“This is the fight and the fight was crystallized in the election when millions of people in India clearly understood that the Prime Minister of India was attacking the Constitution of India…Every single word that I have said to you is in the Constitution. The foundation of modern India is the Constitution. What people understood in the election clearly, and I saw it happening when I used to raise the Constitution, people understood what I was saying. They were saying that the BJP is attacking our tradition, attacking our language, attacking our states, attacking our histories,” he said.
He said most importantly, what they understood was that anybody who is attacking the Constitution of India is also attacking our religious tradition.
“That is why in my first speech in Parliament you must have noticed when I describe Abhayamudra, the fact that this is a symbol of fearlessness and it is present in every single Indian religion….When I was saying this, the BJP could not stand it. They don’t understand and we are going to make them understand,” Rahul Gandhi said while referring to hisbspeech in the Lok Sabha ehere he had slammed the BJP and even the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had to intervene.
The Congress leader also said that the other thing that happened was that the “fear of the BJP vanished”.
“We saw that immediately, within minutes of the election result, nobody in India was scared of the BJP or the Prime Minister of India. So these are huge achievements, not of Rahul Gandhi or the Congress party. We are peripheral. These are huge achievements of the people of India who realized democracy, of the people of India who realized that we are not going to accept an attack on our Constitution. We are not going to accept an attack on our religion, on our state….” he asserted.
In the Lok Sabha elections, that took place earlier this year, the BJP fell short of majority as it was reduced to 240 seats. The BJP formed the government at the centre with the support of the NdA allies which brought its tally to 293 seats. Whereas the resurgent Congress managed to win 99 seats while the INDIA bloc altogether won 234 seats.
The Congress leader is also scheduled to visit New York on September 9 and 10, where he will be interacting with the technocrats, lawmakers and Indian diaspora. He will also visit the national press club and hold talks with the .think tanks also.
He is scheduled to return to India by Srptember 14.