Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday compared the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (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 RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) 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 (NSUI) convention in New Delhi.
"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.
