PoliticsParties
VHP and BJP hit back after Rahul Gandhi calls RSS an 'all male' cult
The Leader of the Opposition said on the Sangh's foundation day that it treats women as men's property. The VHP accused him of "mental bankruptcy" and BJP leaders told him to study the organisation first.
Key points
- Rahul Gandhi called the RSS an "all male anti-constitutional cult" in a post on X on Tuesday.
- VHP spokesperson Vinod Bansal said the remark showed "mental bankruptcy".
- BJP MLA Ram Kadam said the RSS has a department for women's activities.
The Vishva Hindu Parishad and the BJP rounded on Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday after the Congress leader described the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as an organisation of men that sees women as their property.
Gandhi, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, posted on X on Tuesday, the RSS foundation day, hours after its chief Mohan Bhagwat delivered his Vijayadashami address in Nagpur. “The RSS is an all male anti-constitutional cult that believes women are the property of men,” he wrote, setting his own belief in Shiva-Shakti against it. “That’s why it gives me such joy to fight them. What’s beautiful is that many of their ‘own’ women are on my side.”
VHP national spokesperson Vinod Bansal said leaders like Gandhi were suffering from “mental bankruptcy” and had “failed to notice women at RSS events”. He said he had attended three Vijayadashami events on Tuesday and families were present at all of them. “Congress has travelled the world criticising the RSS, and everyone knows what it has gained or lost in the process,” he added.
BJP leaders called the post childish. Ram Kadam, a BJP MLA in Maharashtra, told Gandhi to study the RSS before attacking it, saying the Sangh has a department devoted to women’s activities and that women take part in its programmes across the country. Telangana BJP president N Ramachandra Rao asked how much room the Congress gives women in its own ranks.
It is the latest round in a running fight. On 10 October, amid the protests over the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, Gandhi accused RSS “goons” of attacking women protesters and young people, and blamed Delhi Police under Home Minister Amit Shah.
The RSS is marking the final year of its centenary celebrations. In Nagpur on Tuesday, Bhagwat warned that agitations aimed at regime change do not solve a country’s basic problems.