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Rahul Gandhi: PM Is Running India Like An 'RSS Shakha'

Rahul Gandhi: PM Is Running India Like An 'RSS Shakha'
Indian Congress Party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi speaks during a rally in New Delhi on April 19, 2015. Beleaguered opposition leader Rahul Gandhi led a rally of thousands of farmers in the Indian capital April 19, 2015, against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's controversial overhaul of laws on land-buying. AFP PHOTO / SAJJAD HUSSAIN (Photo credit should read SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images)
SAJJAD HUSSAIN via Getty Images
Indian Congress Party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi speaks during a rally in New Delhi on April 19, 2015. Beleaguered opposition leader Rahul Gandhi led a rally of thousands of farmers in the Indian capital April 19, 2015, against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's controversial overhaul of laws on land-buying. AFP PHOTO / SAJJAD HUSSAIN (Photo credit should read SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW DELHI — Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday compared the RSS to the Nazis and accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of trying to run India like an RSS 'shakha' by "silencing the voices of lakhs of Indians".

In a scathing attack on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre, Gandhi said both the organisations were using discipline as an excuse to kill individuality.

"Have you seen an RSS shakha? Everyone stands in a straight line. If someone utters anything, he is silenced with a lathi," Gandhi said in his address at the National Students' Union of India convention here.

"Discipline is an excuse for them to murder individuality. They are attempting to silence the lakhs of voices in India with this excuse of discipline."

Gandhi compared the RSS 'dhwaj pranam' (flag salutation) with the Nazi salute.

"I don't know how they salute with their hands, but it is similar to how they saluted in Germany. I would never do it," Gandhi said, in an obvious comparison of the RSS with the Nazis.

Gandhi also accused Modi of failing to take care of the country's farmers.

"Modi ji in his speeches had said that he would help the poor but the fact is that he has been to France, the US, Japan, China, Nepal and even Mongolia, but is yet to visit the house of a poor farmer," said Gandhi, as the audience cheered and applauded.

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