Congress' campaign is political swindle based on lies: RSS
New Delhi, May 7:A day after Rahul Gandhi posted a video highlighting the BJP and RSS leaders' "anti-Dalit" stance, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh on Monday hit back terming the Congress chief and his party's campaign a "political swindle based on lies".
"The Congress party and its President continue to try and misguide the society with their lies and deceit.
"The official Facebook page of Rahul Gandhi has shared a blatant lie in the name of Sarsanghchalak Mohanji Bhagwat and me. In that he has claimed that the RSS intends to end the reservations granted to the SC/ST communities by the Indian constitution," RSS joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya said in a statement.
Vaidya said "these allegations are a white lie and absolutely baseless".
Gandhi on Sunday targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party and RSS for posing "fascist ideology", and claimed that they wanted Dalits and Adivasis to exist on the bottom rung of the society.
Gandhi shared a two-minute-long video on Twitter showing atrocities against Dalits, including the 2016 Una incident.
He also questioned the "silence" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the rising incidents of atrocities against Dalits in the country.
"Central to the RSS/BJP fascist ideology is that Dalits and Adivasis must continue to exist at the bottom rung of society. In this disturbing video, the dangers of this mindset and how it's openly propagated by senior RSS/BJP leaders is revealed," Gandhi tweeted with the hashtag #AnswerMaadiModi or "Modi must answer" in Kannada.
The video also claimed that "every 12 minutes, Dalits face atrocity and everyday six Dalit women are raped".
The RSS member later challenged Gandhi, saying "if he has some honesty", he must furnish proofs.
Vaidya said the constitutional provisions of reservations for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are because of the social inequalities that unfortunately exist in the Hindu society.
"It has been the official stand of RSS that these reservations should continue."
He said the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha has reiterated this from time to time through its resolutions.
The RSS is committed and engaged in creating an egalitarian and harmonious society in the country that is free from social inequalities, Vaidya said.
"Rahul Gandhi and Congress Party's campaign is a political swindle based on lies and falsehood. I strongly condemn this heinous and unwelcome conduct," Vaidya added.
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I'm not anti-business, I'm anti-monopoly: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asserted that he was not "anti-business" as being projected by the BJP but was "anti-monopoly" and "anti-creating oligopolies".
His remarks came a day after he penned an opinion piece in The Indian Express in which he said the original East India Company wound up over 150 years ago but the raw fear it then generated is back with a new breed of monopolists having taken its place.
Gandhi, however, had asserted that a "new deal for progressive Indian business is an idea whose time has come".
In a video posted on X on Thursday, Gandhi said, "I want to make something absolutely clear, I have been projected by my opponents in the BJP to be anti-business. I am not anti-business in the least, I am anti-monopoly, I am anti-creating oligopolies, I am anti-domination of business by one or 2 or 5 people."
"I started my career as a management consultant and I understand the type of things that are required for a business to succeed. So I just want to repeat, I am not anti-business, I am anti-monopoly," the former Congress chief said.
In his post accompanying the video, Gandhi said, "I am pro-Jobs, pro-Business, pro-Innovation, pro-Competition. I am anti-Monopoly."
"Our economy will thrive when there is free and fair space for all businesses," Gandhi asserted.
In his article, Gandhi had said India was silenced by the East India Company and it was silenced not by its business prowess, but by its chokehold.
The Company choked India by partnering with, bribing, and threatening more pliant maharajas and nawabs, he pointed out.
"It controlled our banking, bureaucratic, and information networks. We didn't lose our freedom to another nation; we lost it to a monopolistic corporation that ran a coercive apparatus," he said.
The original East India Company wound up over 150 years ago, but the raw fear it then generated is back, he claimed.
A new breed of monopolists has taken its place, amassing colossal wealth, even as India has become far more unequal and unfair for everybody else, Gandhi had said.
The BJP had slammed Gandhi for making "baseless accusations" against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked him to examine facts before jumping to conclusions.
Hitting back at the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the BJP wrote on X: "Another baseless accusation against the Modi government through the so-called 'match-fixing monopoly groups versus fair-play businesses' is simply misleading."
"Dear Baalak Buddhi, do not jump to conclusions without examining facts," the saffron party said in a veiled reference to Gandhi.
