New Delhi: Dismissing suggestions that he had made a U-turn over the role of the RSS in Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi insisted Thursday that he stood by “every single word” he had said earlier on the subject.
“I will never stop fighting the hateful & divisive agenda of the RSS. I stand by every single word I said,” he tweeted in the wake of media reports that he had taken a U-turn on Wednesday when his counsel informed the Supreme Court that he had never blamed the RSS as an organisation for the killing of Mahatma Gandhi, but only that a “few individuals in the organisation” were behind it.
Before Rahul’s tweet, information and broadcasting minister M. Venk-aiah Naidu said on Thursday morning that wisdom had prevailed upon the Congress vice-president.
“Good, Rahul finally admitted before Supreme Court that RSS is not accused in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi... Wisdom has prevailed. It may be a U-turn but a good turn. RSS a patriotic organisation. RSS — Ready for Self-Service anywhere, anytime,” Mr Naidu tweeted. Mr Gandhi had on Wednesday tried to set the record straight by informing the Supreme Court that he had never blamed the RSS as an institution for killing Mahatma Gandhi, but those associated with it were behind the assassination.
He buttressed his stand by citing paragraphs from his affidavit filed in the Bombay high court, while challenging the summons issued to him as an accused for his alleged defamatory statement in a 2015 election rally speech in Maharashtra.
