No apologies, will prove Godse-RSS link: Congress

NEW DELHI, July 19: The Congress on Tuesday asserted that it will prove in court the connection Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin had with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), saying “history can neither be changed nor rewritten”. The party said on Tuesday said its vice president Rahul Gandhi will not apologise for his remark against the RSS that it killed Mahatma Gandhi.

“Rahul Gandhi will present all historical evidence in support of his case in a court of law. He will not apologise,” Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi told the media at Parliament House complex. He said the Congress will support Gandhi all through the case.

“The case is in court. We would not like to comment on it,” Gogoi said, adding that Rahul Gandhi has already said he will not apologise for his comment on the assassition of Father of the tion.

Congress spokeswoman Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “If it comes to trial then we are ready to give evidence to the court, as history cannot be changed, cannot be rewritten, and cannot be denied just because it does not suit the current government,”

“Why should one apologise? The Supreme Court has made an observation and it is not the fil verdict,” Chaturvedi told IANS over phone.

“If we have to go to trial to prove thu Ram Godse’s connection with the RSS, we will do it by providing evidence to the court. There have been been various records that prove he was connected with the RSS,” she said.

Godse was tried and convicted for assassiting Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948. He was executed on November 15, 1949.

Chaturvedi said “history has witnessed Godse’s connection with the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha”.

According to party sources, Rahul Gandhi is ready to face trial instead of apologising for the remarks in question that he reportedly made while campaigning in Maharashtra for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Chaturvedi said her party respects the observation made by the apex court.

She said the RSS had no role to play in the struggle to get independence from British rule. “They had apologised to the British and stayed away from the independence movement.”

“Saradar Vallabhbhai Patel had banned the RSS. And it is also known what Patel had to say about Hindu Mahasabha and RSS. The ban was revoked by Patel only after they agreed to remain a cultural organisation instead of becoming a political entity,” she said. Patel was the first Home Minister of independent India.  (IANS)