Opposition will defeat BJP-RSS attempts to thrust one idea: Rahul

Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said the opposition would unitedly "fight and defeat" the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's attempts to "thrust one idea" on a country that celebrates diversity.

Each state had a "culture, (its) own thinking, own way of expression and food" and such diversity was the country's strength and not weakness, he told reporters in Chennai.

But for the BJP it was "weaknesses and these different ideas need to be crushed... the BJP and the RSS are under the impression that one idea can be placed on top of India," Gandhi said, without elaborating.

Stating that this attitude of the BJP was conveyed by leaders at the Dravida Munnetra KAzhagam event on Saturday, Gandhi said he wanted to tell the people of Tamil Nadu and India that "India is not one idea."

"India is thousands of different ideas and this one idea of the RSS will never ever crush the thousands of ideas... The central idea we are fighting is the idea of RSS," Gandhi said after an interaction with Congress workers and leaders.

"We are not going to allow one single idea of the RSS, the bankrupt idea, to invade this country and we are going to fight the RSS together," he said.

Opposition parties stood united and they would fight together and defeat the BJP and the RSS, he added.

The Congress vice-president also said "cultural imperialism" of the BJP was not acceptable to the people of the country.

He claimed the BJP believed that the only people who should be in power in India "are the people who believe in the RSS and anybody else be it Congress or others parties should not exist."

Answering a question about forming a political alliance against the BJP, he said "We are apprising the idea."

India was a mixture of different ideas, Gandhi said, adding he told party leaders that Tamil culture was the way people of Tamil Nadu expressed themselves and it had to be respected.

Against the background of its ally DMK accusing the Centre of "imposing" Hindi, the Congress leader said all languages needed to be respected.

On opposition parties' allegation that the BJP regime at the Centre was running the Tamil Nadu government, he said "yes... BJP is convinced that they run Tamil Nadu, the BJP believes. You ask in what way they are running Tamil Nadu."

IMAGE: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi addresses the media in Chennai on Sunday. Photograph: R Senthil Kumar/PTI Photo