Rahul angers both Islamists and Saffronists by comparing RSS with Muslim Brotherhood

Newsroom, Aug 25: Congress supremo Rahul Gandhi has landed in a fresh controversy by comparing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to Muslim Brotherhood (MB), a prominent Islamic organisation, which is known for its fight against monarchy in Middle Eastern countries.

“The RSS’ idea is similar to the idea of Muslim Brotherhood in the Arab world,” Mr Gandhi said at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a London-based think-tank. He was addressing the Indian diaspora at a function organised by the Indian Overseas Congress in Berlin.

The bizarre comparison has irked both saffronists and Islamists in India. While RSS hates to be compared with any Muslim organisations, several a major section of Indian Muslims consider Muslim Brotherhood to be a noble organisation.

Condemning the remarks, the BJP accused Congress leader of acting as a “contract killer” of the idea called India and demanded an apology.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said the likes of President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who died last week, have a RSS background and Gandhi’s comparison of the organisation with an Islamist outfit is “unforgivable”.

The Muslim Brotherhood (also known as Al-Ikhwān al-Muslimūn) is the most powerful Islamic socio-political organisation in the Arab world founded by Islamic thinker Hassan al-Banna in 1928. The organization gained supporters in several Middle Eastern countries and influenced other Islamist groups such as Hamas with its "model of political activism combined with Islamic charity work". However, anti-democratic governments of the several Muslim dominant countries consider it to be a terrorist outfit.

Following the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 and fall of then dictator Hosni Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood was legalized and was at first very successful, dominating the 2011 parliamentary election and winning the 2012 presidential election, before the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi a year later, leading to a crackdown on the Brotherhood again.