RSS is fanatical like SIMI: Rahul

Rahul Gandhi has created quite a controversy by equating the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak to the outlawed Students Islamic Movement of India at Madhya Pradesh. When asked about this remark he said, “I know only that both SIMI and the RSS were fanatical and held fundamentalist views.

Rahul had said at Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh on October 5 during his three day tour of MP that both organizations had extreme views. On October 6 he was asked by a journalist in MP regarding the same. Replying to this Rahul pointed out that I know only that both SIMI and the RSS were fanatical and held fundamentalist views and there is no place for people with fanatical views in the Youth Congress.

The RSS has however reacted sharply to this remark and has said that he has a long way to go before he understands India. They also commented that he appears to know Italy and Colombia better, which the RSS says was said in lighter vein.

Ram Madhav, spokesperson of the RSS told rediff.com from New Delhi that Rahul Gandhi had made this statement two days back too. We chose to ignore it at that time. Today he made the same statement and we decided to react. It is important that he understands India, its social history before making any such statement. The RSS is an organization which completely abides by the Constitution and what sense does it make to compare it to the SIMI which is banned and is responsible for anti national activities. It just shows his lack of understanding. He is a leader who is aspiring to rise in politics and it is necessary that he should know the Indian society first and also the politics of the country before making such statements.

Author and journalist, Rasheed Kidwai however has a different take on the matter. He says, “ I think Rahul was referring to two different ideologies and was not talking in terms of specifics. This is not something new and has been cropping up every now and then. If you look at the history of the Congress it has always been opposed to extremism. I don’t find anything controversial in the remark.

The Congress in principle has been opposed to extreme ideology and what Rahul was trying to say is that the party has no place for such people.