Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi Wednesday launched a scathing attack on RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat over his “independence” remarks, saying it was an insult to every Indian and he has committed “treason”.

Speaking on the occasion of the inauguration of the Congress’ new headquarters, Indira Gandhi Bhawan, named after the former Prime Minister, he said, “We are inaugurating our new headquarters at a very significant time. It’s quite symbolic that yesterday, in a speech, the chief of the RSS said that India never achieved true independence in 1947, but rather when the Ram Mandir was built.”

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Calling the remarks of the RSS chief as “treason”, Gandhi said, “Mohan Bhagwat has the audacity to inform the nation every two or three days what he thinks about the independence movement, what he thinks about the Constitution. In fact, what he has said yesterday is treason because it is stating that the Constitution is invalid. He is stating the fight against the British was invalid.”

The Leader of Opposition in the Lower House asserted that in any other country, he would have been arrested for such remarks.

“To say that India did not get independence in 1947 is an insult to every single Indian person. We should stop listening to this nonsense,” he said.

Attacking the BJP-RSS, Gandhi said, “There are two visions in India in conflict. One is our idea, the idea of the Constitution, and the other is the idea of the RSS.”

“One idea (of Congress) says India is a Union of States, there is no superior or inferior culture. There is no superior community or inferior community. They are all the same that are written in the Constitution. It is symbolised by this building. On the other side, there is the idea of a centralised knowledge of a centralised understanding.We have been fighting the RSS ideology for thousands of years,” he said.

The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha further said, “People who are in power today, don’t salute the tricolour, don’t believe in the national flag, don’t believe in the Constitution. They have a completely different vision of India than we do.”

“They want India to be run by a secretive society. They want to run India by one man and want to crush the voice of this country. They want to crush the voice of the Dalits, minorities, backward castes and tribals. This is their agenda,” he added.

Gandhi also accused the BJP and RSS of capturing every single institution of the country.

“We are now fighting the BJP, RSS and the Indian state itself,” he said.

Gandhi said the Congress party has worked with the Indian people and it has built the success of this country on the foundation of the Constitution.

He said the Congress is the only party which is capable of stopping them.

Referring to the outcome of the Maharashtra Assembly polls, the Leader of Opposition in the Lower House asserted that something went wrong in the elections.

Attacking the Election Commission said ,”We are uncomfortable with the way the Election Commission operates. The sudden appearance of almost one crore new voters between the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections in Maharashtra is problematic.”

He said it is the Election Commission’s duty to provide a voters’ list with names and addresses of those who voted in the elections. However, the Election Commission has “refused” to provide this information.

“Why would the Election Commission refuse to make the voters’ list transparent? What purpose does it serve by not providing us with the list, and why are they withholding it? It is the Election Commission’s duty to provide transparency, and it is their sacred responsibility to explain why this has happened,” Gandhi said.

”There is a serious problem with our election system, and it is the Election Commission’s duty to be transparent,” he added.