‘RSS is saying certain states, languages are inferior to others’: Rahul Gandhi in the US

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said to a gathering of Indian-Americans in Herndon, a Virginia suburb of Washington DC that the RSS considers certain states and languages and religions inferior to others. He said that’s not what the idea of India is, which is a union of multitudes. 

“What the RSS is basically saying is that certain states are inferior to other states, certain languages are inferior to other languages, certain religions are inferior to other religions, certain communities are inferior to other communities. You know what the fight is about…we are of the opinion that whether you are from Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, all of you have your history, all of you have your tradition, all of you have your language, and every single one of them is as important as the other one,” said Gandhi in Herndon. 

“What would you do if someone told you you cannot speak Tamil? How would you feel? How would you react? That is the ideology of the RSS…that Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, Manipuri…these are all inferior languages. That’s what the fight is about. It ends up at the polling booth. The fight is about what kind of India we want to have,” said Gandhi. 

He asked if we can have an India where people are allowed to believe what they believe, allowed to respect what they want to respect, say what they want to say, listen to what they want to hear or are we going to have an India where a few people will decide what will happen.

Rahul Gandhi said that the problem with RSS is that they do not understand India. They don’t understand India, its history, said Gandhi. 

The Congress leader likened India to a thali, where all the dishes are served together, unlike a 3-4 course meal. “That’s India’s nature,” he said, asking what would happen if one were to start ranking the dishes in the thali in terms of their importance. 

“They don’t understand that India is everyone’s and it is made from everyone,” said Gandhi. 

While the Constitution calls India a union of states, the RSS does not believe so, he said. He said the RSS believes that only one thing is very important, its headquarters in Nagpur. 

Gandhi said that the Congress and its allies are trying to spread the message of love, and urge everyone to not be arrogant and to be humble, respect people, traditions, religions, languages and communities.