Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai)

Those who are scared can leave Cong: Rahul

- HT Correspond­ent

NEW DELHI: There is no place in the Congress for people who are afraid, and they are free to leave, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Friday, when he virtually addressed over 3,500 social media volunteers of the party from across the country.

“There are many people who don’t belong to the Congress, but are very fearless in speaking the truth. Such people should be inducted into the party while those who are in the party but are scared to speak the truth should be ousted, ” Gandhi told volunteers. He termed people who left the party for the BJP, “RSS men” a reference to the Rashtriya Swayamseva­k Sangh.

Reacting to Gandhi’s comment, RSS spokespers­on Rajiv Tuli said that any statement of Gandhi is not even “worth commenting.” “The whole world knows about the strength of RSS and it does not need any validation from someone whose own credential­s are not clear.”

Rohan Gupta, who heads Congress’s social media department, said Gandhi was very clear that volunteers should stick to the Gandhian ideology of the party. He added that Gandhi said more the number of people in the party’s social media team, the less government can do to stifle their voice. Gupta said Gandhi spoke for over two hours and also interacted with the volunteers.

He added that the meeting was largely focused on “how social media can play an important role in a country where the government is working to curb the voice of mainstream media.”

Gupta said the former Congress chief advised the volunteers to be “steadfast in fighting” the wrongs of government and assured them that , “maybe not today but the results of these efforts of speaking truth to power” would be visible soon. Gandhi added that the government was “afraid of the voices over social media which is why it is making efforts to curb it.”

BJP national spokespers­on Gopal Agarwal said, “The amount of criticism which BJP government at Centre and its state government­s are facing from Gandhi is increasing every day. He himself speaks so much on social media without any proof. He is trying to create a false narrative among people.”

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Rahul Gandhi

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