Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday dismissed suggestions that he had made a U-turn on RSS role in killing Mahatma and insisted that he stood by "every single word" said by him.
"I will never stop fighting the hateful & divisive agenda of the RSS. I stand by every single word I said," he tweeted.
Along with the tweet, he also posted a link to the video of his speech. In March 2014, while addressing an election rally in Thane's Bhiwandi, Rahul had said, "RSS people killed Gandhiji, and today their people talk of him. They are opposed to Sardar Patel and Gandhiji."
His tweet came after media reports said that he took a U-turn yesterday when he told the Supreme Court that he never blamed the RSS for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi but had only said that a "few individuals in the organisation" were responsible for it.
Rahul yesterday chose to set the records straight by telling the top court that he had never blamed RSS as an institution for killing Mahatama Gandhi but persons associated with it were behind the assassination.
While refusing to apologise Gandhi said his comments were misinterpreted by the RSS worker who filed the defamation case against him.
He buttressed his stand by citing paragraphs from his affidavit filed in the Bombay High Court, while challenging the summons issued to him as an accused for his alleged defamatory statement.
Senior advocate and Congress leader Kapil Sibal, appearing for Rahul Gandhi, cited the affidavit filed before the High Court saying he had only accused certain people of RSS and not the organisation as the killer of Mahatma Gandhi.
"I never made the statement that RSS killed Mahatma Gandhi but persons associated with the RSS killed him," the senior advocate had told the Court.
BJP leaders mocked Rahul for his purported U-turn. Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu today said that wisdom had prevailed upon the Congress vice president.
"Good, Rahul finally admitted before Supreme Court that RSS is not accused in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Wisdom has prevailed. It may be a U-turn but a good turn. RSS a patriotic organization. RSS - Ready for Self Service anywhere any time," Naidu said in a series of tweets.
Earlier today, Congress leader Digvijay Singh had dismissed suggestions that Rahul has made a U-turn in the Supreme Court on the RSS and said the party vice president stands by his assertion that the person who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi was from the organisation.
"No U-Turn by Rahul Gandhi on RSS. He stands by what he said. Person who killed was from RSS. It is the Ideology of hate and violence which killed Mahatma Gandhi", the Congress General Secretary said in a series of tweets.
