NEW DELHI, March 25: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said he will not call the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) the Sangh Parivar any longer. The statement comes soon after the controversial incident of nuns being heckled and being forced to step out from a train in Uttar Pradesh.
Gandhi tweeted in Hindi,”This is my belief that the RSS and affiliated organisations should not be called the Sangh Parivar…In a family there are women, there is respect for elders, there is love and affection… which is not in the RSS. So now I will not call the RSS as Parivar (family).”
According to reports, the incident took place last week when the nuns were travelling on the Haridwar-Puri Utkal Express. On March 19, members of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had accused the nuns of carrying out religious conversions.
They were allowed to proceed only after an inquiry at the railway station established there was no conversion involved.
The ABVP is the students wing of the RSS, the ideological mentor of the BJP.
A 25-second video from the train compartment shows the women surrounded by some men, some of whom appear to be policemen.
Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi has attacked the RSS on the issue, “The attack in UP on nuns from Kerala is a result of the vicious propaganda run by the Sangh Parivar to pitch one community against another and trample the minorities. Time for us as a nation to introspect and take corrective steps to defeat such divisive forces.”
IANS