RSS is like a poison, don't accept its invite: Congress leaders warn Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi had recently compared the RSS with the terror outfit Muslim Brotherhood.

NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been advised to maintain distance with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) – the parent organisation of the ruling BJP at the Centre – as it is akin to ''poison''.

Rahul Gandhi was advised not to accept the RSS invite to attend an upcoming event of the right-wing outfit, cautioning that doing so would be akin to consuming poison.

Senior Congress leaders in core group meeting have advised Rahul Gandhi to not accept RSS program invitation: Sources pic.twitter.com/dHMbNWf2UE

— ANI (@ANI) August 30, 2018

The word of caution came from the members of the newly-constituted Congress Core Group, which met for the first time on Thursday.

During the meeting, Rahul Gandhi was told that accepting the RSS invite will harm his reputation since he has taken a strong stand against the right-wing organisation.

The warning from Congress leaders came in the wake of reports that the RSS will be organising a three-day lecture series ‘Future of Bharat: An RSS’ perspective’ from September 17 to 19 in Delhi.

Sources said that Rahul Gandhi may be invited for the same along with Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechuri. 

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat will be interacting with intellectuals and political leaders during the 3-day event. The idea of the event is to invite people from different ideologies for the event.

It may be recalled that Rahul Gandhi had recently likened the RSS to terror outfit Muslim Brotherhood which is active in Egypt but banned in several Arab countries.

During his recent trip to Germany and the United Kingdom, the Congress chief had attacked the RSS and said that its ideology was similar to the Islamic States.

During his regular interactions with media and on Twitter, Rahul Gandhi had made a barrage of attack on the RSS, questioning its ideology and accusing it of trying to take control of the democratic institutions. 

Rahul Gandhi has on many occasions slammed the BJP of functioning under the pressure from the RSS and executing its pro-Hindutva agenda.

The meeting of the Congress Core Group was convened to chalk out the strategy to further escalate attack on the Narendra Modi government over the Rafale jet deal, which the Congress calls the ''Great Rafale Robbery.''

The members of CWG met at Rahul Gandhi's residence to discuss further strategy over the Rafale issue.

Rahul Gandhi and his colleagues had launched a frontal attack on the Narendra Modi government over the Rafale issue and are demanding a joint parliamentary committee probe into it.

Continuing the war of words with the ruling BJP, the Congress on Wednesday alleged that Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was trying to cover up a "scandal with scandal" and asked why the government was "scared" for a JPC probe.

Rahul Gandhi attacked PM Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a tweet while Congress Spokesperson Manish Tewari posed queries on the deal at the party's regular briefing here. 

The Opposition party's attack came hours after Jaitley termed the Congress party's charges on the Rafale deal "complete falsehood'', in a Facebook blog post. 

Hitting back, Rahul said that the government should then accept a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe.