Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are “bullies,” and there is a need to collectively fight against them through non-violence even as he also alleged that the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)’s idea is to ensure that the BJP comes to power in Meghalaya.
“The BJP and the RSS are bullies who think they know everything and understand everything and have no respect for anybody else,” Rahul said while addressing an election rally in Malki Ground in Shillong.
Accusing the BJP and the RSS of trying to attack and destroy Meghalaya’s culture and tradition, the senior Congress leader said, “I am here to tell you that we are standing with you in this fight and we are not going to allow the ideology of the BJP to harm your language, tradition, culture and history.”
“Because, for us that would not be India, that would be violence, that would be anger, that would be hatred as our country is not a hateful, violent and angry country,” he added.
Rahul Gandhi also said only a coward tries to impose his will on another person and the BJP is like a class bully “who thinks that he is stronger than anybody, bullies everybody and doesn’t really understand anything and one fine day somebody in the class teaches him a good lesson and he stops bullying”.
Urging the people to fight the “bullies” collectively, Rahul said, “The way to fight them (BJP and RSS) is through non-violence, through affection, through love and through respect for each other’s culture, tradition, languages and religions.”
Stating that he has come to Meghalaya to try and understand its people’s perspective and try to listen and appreciate their history, culture and tradition, he said, “I'm wearing this jacket as a sign of respect to your culture and your tradition,” while adding, “So if I was to come here like the Prime Minister does and put on this jacket then attack your religion, attack your culture, attack your history, attack your language I would be insulting you.”
“So I come here with humility and I wear this jacket as a sign of respect to you, to your ancestors and to everybody who lived in the state before you and because I do that I walk away from Meghalaya with wisdom, with understanding and with affection,” he added.
Rahul Gandhi further alleged that the BJP is attacking states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana and said, “Every single state is being attacked by the RSS and one idea is being imposed on all these states and that is something which we will resist and we will not accept.”
Further, Rahul accused the Trinamool Congress (TMC) of trying to help the BJP form the government in Meghalaya.
“Of course, you also know the history of the TMC. You know the violence that takes place in West Bengal. You know the Saradha scam that has taken place. You are aware of their tradition. They came to Goa, spent huge amounts of money and the idea was to help the BJP and this is exactly the idea in Meghalaya also. The TMC’s idea in Meghalaya is to ensure that the BJP is strengthened and they come to power,” he further said.
Attacking the NPP-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government for the corruption that has been taking place under its regime, the senior Congress leader said, “Today we were having a conversation in the car about the collapse of the Assembly’s dome and the leaders were telling me look they were building the dome of the Assembly and it collapsed and I asked them jokingly a question : did it collapse by mistake or they collapse it purposely so that they could rebuild it? They laughed and said they never thought about that. Maybe they collapsed it on purpose so that they could rebuild it and spend some more money rebuilding the dome.”
