RaGa’s flip-flop reminds of school kids; On twitter, he again stand by words against RSS

New Delhi, Aug 25: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is again and again trying to prove himself as kiddo by failing to handle crisis in a matured way. He attempted today to gain back some lost credibility by saying that he “will never stop fighting the hateful and divisive agenda of the RSS”.

“I stand by every single word I said,” he further said.

The same flip of RaGa reminds of some school kids who denies when teacher ask him whether he was having a chat. Though the kid refuses to have spoken a single word with his bench-mate, he would again repeat the same.

But Gandhi said all this on Twitter and not in the Supreme Court, where he gave a complete opposite version. So this Twitter attempt could well end up being a case of too little too late.

Yesterday, the Congress vice president had a chance to stick to his guns in a defamation case hearing against him. But he didn’t, in what many saw as a big ‘fail’ and a missed opportunity for him to show a semblance of stick-to-itiveness.

Here’s what happened: An RSS activist had filed a case against Rahul for saying in a Mumbai rally in 2014 that the RSS assassinated Gandhi.

On July 19, the Supreme Court told Rahul to express regret for his comments or be ready to face a defamation trial. In the meanwhile, the RSS activist who filed the criminal defamation case had offered to withdraw the case against Rahul if he absolved the RSS of the assassination.

After repeatedly refusing to “express regret” for his comments during an election speech that “RSS people” had killed Mahatma Gandhi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi Wednesday told the Supreme Court that he never meant to blame the entire RSS for the assassination.

“The petitioner (Rahul Gandhi) never accused the RSS as an institution for the crime… it is clear from my affidavit before the (Bombay) High Court,” Rahul’s counsel Kapil Sibal told a bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Rohinton F Nariman.

Sibal repeatedly referred to the Congress leader’s affidavit in which Rahul had said that he blamed a person associated with the RSS for the killing, but did not denounce the whole organisation.

This statement by Rahul’s counsel and veteran lawyer Sibal signifies a climb-down from his previous stand. In earlier hearings, Sibal had turned down the court’s suggestion to give a “decent burial” to the case — by Rahul expressing regret over his statement. The lawyer had said that there was no question of expressing regret and that he would rather argue Rahul’s case on merits, based on evidence on record and judicial precedents.

But on Wednesday, Sibal submitted that his client had never blamed the RSS as an institution that killed Mahatma Gandhi but had only stated that a person associated with it was responsible. “We have already said this in the High Court in my affidavit. I stand by my statement made therein,” he added.

At this, the bench perused Rahul’s affidavit and seemed to agree with Sibal’s assertion that Rahul had not blamed the whole of the RSS for the assassination. “What we understand is that the accused never blamed RSS as an institution that killed Mahatma Gandhi but the person associated with it,” remarked the bench.

In March 2014, while addressing an election rally in Thane’s Bhiwandi, Rahul had said, “RSS people killed Gandhiji and today their people talk of him… They opposed Sardar Patel and Gandhiji.”

The bench asked senior counsel U R Lalit, who represented the complainant in the case, if he was satisfied with Rahul’s clarification and whether criminal charges could be dropped by taking on record his statement. Lalit said that he would want Rahul’s statement — that he did not denounce the RSS as a whole — to be recorded. The court agreed to this, and Lalit sought some time to consult the complainant, Rajesh Kunte, and revert.

The bench adjourned the matter for September 1 while indicating that it might drop the criminal defamation charges against Rahul if the complainant was satisfied with his statement.

The case against Rahul was revived in the wake of the top court’s judgment refusing to de-criminalise defamation, a penal offence punishable with two years in jail apart from a monetary penalty. The court had upheld the validity of the penal law while deciding on a clutch of petitions moved separately by Rahul, BJP MP Subramanian Swamy and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Through a separate petition, Rahul has sought the quashing of the criminal defamation case pending against him at a court in Bhiwandi for his comments, following a complaint lodged by Kunte, secretary of the local RSS unit.

Last month, while hearing his appeal against the charges, the bench had questioned Rahul for a “collective denunciation” of the RSS, and had asked him to either express regret or face trial.