Rahul busts buzz on cousin Varun's entry into Congress

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday busted the growing buzz that his cousin and BJP MP Varun Gandhi could be joining Congress and asserted that he can never agree with Varun's acceptance of RSS ideology. He questioned RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's claim that it was 'natural for Hindus to be aggressive as they have been in war for a thousand years' and said Bhagwat's views can't be based on "Hindu ideas" but "RSS ideas".

Responding to a question at a press conference in Hoshiarpur on whether his Bharat Jodo Yatra could also unite his parivar, his 'brother' Varun, in the Congress, Gandhi said: "He (Varun) is in BJP and coming over here would be a problem for him. My ideology does not gel with his ideology. I can never go to the RSS office. Even if you will have my throat slit, still I will not go to the RSS. My family has an ideology and a thinking system. But Varun had once, perhaps even now, accepted that (RSS) ideology. So, I can't accept that. Of course, I can meet him with love and hugs but I can't accept that ideology."

"Years ago, Feroz (Varun Gandhi) told me that 'RSS is doing a lot of good work in the country'. I told him to study and learn the history of our family. I told him 'if you have understood the history of our family, you wouldn't have said that'," Gandhi added. Incidentally, Gandhi has a history of patronising and foisting former BJP leader Navjot Singh Sidhu as Punjab PCC president and former Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Nirupam as Mumbai Regional Congress chief.


Gandhi's remarks could put an end to serial claims that Varun could be in talks, perhaps even with Priyanka Vadra, to join Congress. While Varun Gandhi never made any such public claims, yet his cousin's remarks, some feel, may leave him with no easy exit route from BJP where he is languishing.