I Don’t Want A BJP-Mukt Bharat, But I will Fight And Defeat Them: Rahul Gandhi

Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that he does not want a "Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-mukt Bharat" but he will fight and defeat them.

His comment has come in response to BJP’s high-decibel campaign for a ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ and at a time the Karnataka poll campaign enters the slog overs.

In an interview to Deccan Herald, the Congress chief said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP have a very rigid concept of nationalism and that the people of the country will not tolerate it. He claimed the idea of nationalism was inspired from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s concept of what it means to be an Indian.

“I am saying that the BJP view is a fact in India, and I do not want a BJP-mukt Bharat,” Gandhi told the Deccan Herald. “I will fight them, I will defeat them, but it is an expression and I accept that all voices must be heard. Where I draw the line is violence. Where I draw the line is hatred. My main concern with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh view and the BJP view is violence, hatred, animosity.”

The Congress president also said that all those who had left the party for BJP are "already having second thoughts."

Earlier, While responding to Congress' charge of Modi government being a 'name changer government', Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the BJP is only following Mahatma Gandhi's dream of 'Congress Mukt Bharat'. 

"I want India of Gandhi's dream. And Gandhi had said since the country has got independence, now Congress is not required and should be disbanded. This Congress-mukt Bharat is Gandhi's dream. We are trying to follow the path shown by him," Modi had said.

“When I say Congress-mukt India, it’s not related to election outcomes. Congress-free means becoming free of a culture that promotes casteism, corruption, treachery, exploitation and keeping complete control over power," PM Modi was quoted as saying.