RSS, Muslim Brotherhood Were Banned After Assassination Of Top Leaders: Rahul Gandhi In London

"The most interesting one, women are not allowed in either of these organisations. So, they are similar," Gandhi said.

Updated on: 26 August 2018 10:06 am

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has once again compared the RSS with the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist organisation, and said both were banned after the assassination of the top leaders of India and Egypt -- Mahatma Gandhi and Anwar Sadat, respectively.

Speaking in London on Saturday at an event organised by Indian Journalists' Association, Gandhi said: "I said the RSS is lot like the Muslim brotherhood. And there is a storm in a teacup back home. Both organisations were founded in the 1920s. Both organisations believe in institutional capture. Both organisations view the electoral process as a means of capturing institutions."

"The Muslim Brotherhood was banned after Anwar Sadat's (then Egyptian president) assassination (in 1981), the RSS was banned after Mahatma Gandhi's assassination (in 1948). So, there are tremendous similarities. And the most interesting one, women are not allowed in either of these organisations. So, they are similar," Gandhi added.

He also said: "They are trying to capture institutions so that democratic organisation is throttled," he added.

Gandhi had on Friday compared the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) with the Muslim Brotherhood, and said the RSS wanted to "capture" every institution of the country.

"The RSS is trying to change the nature of India. Other parties haven't tried to capture India's institutions...The RSS' idea is similar to the idea of Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world," Gandhi had said at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a London-based think-tank.

Gandhi had targeted the RSS for the second straight day during his overseas tour of Germany and the United Kingdom.

Gandhi on Thursday said while his party binds the people of India, the BJP-RSS divides them and spreads hatred, He also alleged that women have no place in the RSS where they are treated as "second-class citizens".

He made these remarks while addressing the Indian diaspora at a function organised by the Indian Overseas Congress in Berlin.

Hitting Gandhi back, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the likes of President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who died last week, have a RSS background and Gandhi's comparison of the organisation with an Islamist outfit is "unforgivable"

(Agencies)