"Can Hug Him, But...": Rahul Gandhi On Estranged Cousin Varun Gandhi
NDTV
Mr Gandhi revealed that Varun Gandhi had many years ago tried to say that RSS is doing good work. "I told him if you have read and seen what our family stood for, you wouldn't accept it," he added.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who is leading the pan-India foot march 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', today said he can "lovingly meet" and hug his cousin Varun Gandhi, who is a BJP leader, but can never support the ideology he subscribes to. He said he'd rather be beheaded than go to the office of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh -- the ideological parent of rival BJP.
"Varun Gandhi is in BJP. If he walks in here, then it might be a problem for him. My ideology doesn't match his ideology. I can never go to the RSS office, you'll have to behead me before that. My family has an ideology, a thought system. Varun once adopted, maybe still does, that ideology. He internalised that ideology. I can't accept that," he said.
Mr Gandhi revealed that Varun Gandhi had many years ago tried to say that RSS is doing good work. "I told him if you have read and seen what our family stood for, you wouldn't accept it," he added.
Varun Gandhi, who made headlines for his inflammatory comments against a particular community in speeches at public meetings in Pilibhit during the 2009 Lok Sabha election campaign, has for some time now been embarrassing his own party, the BJP, over various issues.