BJP, RSS Want To 'Finish Off Constitution Discreetly': Rahul Gandhi attacks government at Bharat Jodo Yatra in Madhya Pradesh

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New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) want to "finish off" the Constitution discreetly. He was speaking at a rally after his Bharat Jodo Yatra reached Mhow, the birthplace of Dr B R Ambedkar, on Constitution Day. The Congress leader also spoke about the assassinations of late prime minister Indira Gandhi, his grandmother, and his father Rajiv Gandhi, and said he still does not harbour hatred for anyone including his political foes.

Without naming the RSS, Gandhi said, "There is an organisation which has not unfurled our beloved Tri-colour of the Constitution at its office for 52 years." "Why? The work which Ambedkar ji and the Congress did jointly, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose ji... (Such) Great personalities gave us the Constitution," he said.

The RSS was criticized by its detractors in the past for not hoisting the Tricolour at its offices for several years after Independence. "The Constitution gave equal rights to every person. And its symbol was the the beloved Tricolour," the Congress leader further said. "The RSS and BJP people can not finish off the Constitution openly. They do not have the courage....if they try, the country would stop them," Mr Gandhi said.

The Constitution is not a mere book but a "living power, a thought," he said, alleging that the RSS wanted to erase that thought. Various institutions such as the Rajya Sabha, Judiciary and the country's bureaucracy originated from the Constitution, the Congress leader said.

"The RSS is putting its men in the vital organisations, judiciary, media, with an aim to finish off the Constitution through backdoor," he claimed. Before addressing the rally, Mr Gandhi offered floral tributes to a statue of Dr Ambedkar.

"My grandmother took 32 bullets. My grandmother was killed. My father was killed. (But) The day hatred went away from me, only love bloomed in my heart. Nothing else," he said. He is fighting the RSS and prime minister Narendra Modi, but in his heart he does not harbour hatred against the RSS or the prime minister, he said.

"Not even a speck of hatred. Why, because I do not nurse hatred," he said. "I appeal BJP, PM Narendra Modi ji, Amit Shah ji, RSS people, get rid of fear in your heart, the hatred will melt away. Your fear is causing hatred and inflicting damage on the country. People who have love never fear. The people who fear, cannot love," he added.

This was the message of his cross-country foot-march too, Mr Gandhi said. Since 2015, November 26 is observed as Constitution Day to commemorate the adoption of the Constitution by the Constituent Assembly in 1949. Earlier, the day was observed as Law Day.

The Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi entered MP from Maharashtra through Burhanpur on November 23, and would be covering a distance of 380 kilometres before crossing into Rajasthan on December 4.