Okay with Varun, not RSS ideology, says Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that he has no issues meeting BJP leader and cousin Varun Gandhi but made it clear that he can never accept the RSS ideology.

Commenting on the possibility of Varun Gandhi joining his ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi said: “He is from the BJP, so coming to the yatra may get him into trouble.

“As far as the party is concerned, he and I don’t share a common ideology. I can never enter the RSS office,” the Congress MP said.

“My family has a certain ideology and thinking system. Varun, at one time and perhaps even today, accepted the RSS ideology. That is something I can never accept.

“I can meet, hug him with love, but it is impossible for me to accept that ideology. Relationships are a different matter but we are in an ideological fight today,” Rahul Gandhi said.

“Years ago, when we met, he had told me that the RSS is doing good work in the country. I told him to read and understand the history of the family you belong to because if you understood your family history and ideology, you would have never said what you did.”

Varun joining Congress?

Rahul Gandhi’s comments come amid growing buzz in political circles over the possibility of Varun Gandhi’s entry into the Congress.

Varun Gandhi has been a strident and persistent critic in recent times of several policies and actions of the BJP and also the Modi government.

Varun Gandhi, a third-term BJP MP from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, and his mother Maneka Gandhi, an eight-term Lok Sabha MP, were last year dropped from the BJP’s 80-member National Executive.Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday that he has no issues meeting BJP leader and cousin Varun Gandhi but made it clear that he can never accept the RSS ideology.