The Congress on Thursday cited excerpts from a book by Mahatma Gandhi’s aide Pyarelal to claim that the Father of the Nation had described the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) as a “communal body with a totalitarian outlook”.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the remarks were recorded in Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase, published by Navajivan Publishing House. According to PTI, the first volume appeared in 1956 with an introduction by then President Dr Rajendra Prasad and an endorsement by Vice-President Dr S. Radhakrishnan, while the second volume was published in 1958.
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On page 440 of the second volume, Pyarelal documented a conversation from 12 September 1947 in which Gandhi characterised the RSS as “a communal body with a totalitarian outlook”, Ramesh said. He noted that five months later, then Union home minister Sardar Patel banned the organisation. |
