The Hindu (Tiruchirapalli)

Fight is between ideologies of Cong. and RSS, says Rahul

- E.M. Manoj

Rahul Gandhi during an election campaign in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituen­cy on Monday.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has launched a scathing attack on the BJP and the RSS over “their concept of one nation, one language, one leader, and one people”.

Addressing the public in Wayanad on Monday, Mr. Gandhi said the main fight in the election was between the ideologies of the RSS and the Congress.

Mr. Gandhi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders were nowadays vocal about one nation, one language, one leader, and one people and it stemmed from a wrong understand­ing of the country. “Language is not something that is imposed from the top. It comes from a person’s heart,” he said. To tell a person from Kerala that your language is inferior to Hindi, for example, is an insult to the people of Kerala, he said. “Malayalam is not just a language, it is your link to your civilisati­on,” Mr. Gandhi said.

“The idea that India

should have only one leader is an insult to every young Indian,” Mr. Gandhi said, adding: “Why cannot a young boy or girl not be a leader, why cannot one of our brothers who is driving an autoricksh­aw or a police officers be a leader?”

“Why one leader? There should be millions of leaders in India,” he added.

“We want to listen to our people. We want to love and respect their lives, their language, religion and culture. The BJP wants to impose something from the top,” Mr. Gandhi said.

He said that India did not gain Independen­ce from the British to be colonised by the ideology of the RSS. “We want India to be ruled by her people,” he added.

Mr. Gandhi also highlighte­d the unresolved issues of the district such as the night traffic ban on the KozhikodeK­ollegal NH 766, escalating humananima­l conflict, and the ‘apathy’ of the government in setting up better medicalcar­e facilities and in facilitati­ng the NanjangudN­ilambur line.

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PTI Poll fever:

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