Congress tweets attack on RSS minutes before Pranab Mukherjee's address at its Nagpur headquarters

The Congress raised the RSS's opposition to its actions during the freedom struggle and its links to Nathuram Godse.

Former President Pranab Mukherjee on stage at the RSS event in Nagpur. (Picture: Twitter/@ANI)

The Congress took to Twitter to attack the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) just minutes before former President of India and ex-Congressman Pranab Mukherjee addressed an RSS event in Nagpur. The Congress tweeted a post that raised the RSS's links to MK Gandhi's assassin Nathuram Godse and its conduct in the run-up to Independence.

Acknowledging the controversy over Mukherjee's presence at the RSS event, the Congress said the row afforded an opportunity to recall the history of the RSS.

The Congress's tweet read, "It is imperative for all Indians to know what the RSS has historically stood for and to understand what it thinks today. People of India should never forget how antithetical their ideologies are to the idea of India."

It is imperative for all Indians to know what the RSS has historically stood for and to understand what it thinks today. People of India should never forget how antithetical their ideologies are to the idea of India.https://t.co/j3DoUsaftu

— Congress (@INCIndia) June 7, 2018

The tweet carried a link to a post on the Congress website, titled 'Never forget what the RSS stands for'. The post attempted the portray the RSS as an organisation that failed to stand with the freedom struggle and held no respect for the Tricolour. It also underscored its links to Godse.

"The RSS has never respected the tricolour, and it is only recently, that they have allowed the flag to be unfurled at their headquarters… Furthermore, the close association between the RSS and Nathuram Godse (Mahatma Gandhi's assassin) is too well known to warrant repetition. After Gandhi Ji's assassination, RSS members distributed sweets in RSS circles at several places," read the Congress post.

"To start with, the RSS was never part of the freedom struggle against the British. At a time, when revolutionaries young and old were agitating against the British, the RSS leaders of yore took utmost care to ensure that nothing that they did would tick off the Brits," read the post.

"KB Hegdewar, the founder of RSS was arrested for his role in the Khilafat movement and that was last participation in the freedom movement. The RSS always remained subservient to the colonial power that the British were. When Gandhi Ji launched the Salt Satyagraha in 1930, Hegdewar made it known that the Sangh would have nothing to do with the protest," the post added.

The Congress also accused the RSS "has never had much reverence for the Indian Constitution", and took a shot at the mercy petitions that RSS icon VD Savarkar had submitted to the British. "It is, therefore, imperative to know what the RSS has historically stood for, to understand what it thinks today. We should never forget what the RSS really is," the post concluded.