New Delhi: The Congress has equated the BJP with the Britishers, alleging both of them followed the ‘divide and rule policy’ and supported loot of India’s resources to be moved abroad. The Opposition party alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Pakistan are on the “same page in propagating hatred, violence and division among people”.

Congress’s stinging attack follow repeated jibes from the ruling party that the opposition party and Pakistan both wanted to oust Prime Minister Narendra Modi from power.

Amid repeated attacks from Congress on the issue of Rafale deal, BJP president Amit Shah recently asked whether the opposition party was forming an “international mahagathabandhan” (grand alliance) against Modi.

Addressing a press meet on the eve of Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting at Sewagram in Wardha district near Nagpur, AICC chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said the RSS vision is contrary to the Gandhian ideology.

“When Gandhiji and the Congress were fighting the British, the RSS kept quiet. The RSS doesn’t represent any section of the society. It believes in violence and it’s base is polarisation, hatred and discrimination,” he said.

On reported remarks by Pakistan against the RSS at the United Nations, Surjewala said, “Pakistan, like the RSS, supports violence and it practices hatred and divisiveness. It (the RSS) also supports violence. The Congress and people of India don’t support this.”

Surjewala said the CWC meeting at Sewagram, which was Gandhiji’s “karmbhoomi” (the land where one works), will be historic. It will take place at Mahadev Bhavan, just 300 metres from the Gandhi Ashram.