New Delhi: RSS on Tuesday accused the Congress of "consistently trying to spread lies" about it and assailed its vice president Rahul Gandhi for "avoiding trial" in a defamation case against him in Maharashtra's Bhiwandi for linking the outfit with Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.
The BJP's ideological mentor also said Congress stood "exposed" after the Supreme Court on Tuesday said Rahul Gandhi should not have engaged in "collective denunciation" of the organisation.
"Congress had been consistently trying to spread lies and baseless allegations about RSS. Today's Supreme Court ruling has exposed the Congress," RSS' head of communications department Manmohan Vaidya said.
"They (Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders) are avoiding the trial and are repeating the same false allegations against RSS. It seems he does not have faith in India's legal system and respect for it," he said.
RSS activist Rajesh Kunte had lodged a defamation case against Rahul Gandhi for having told an election rally in Bhiwandi in Maharashtra's Thane district in 2014 that RSS was responsible for Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.
Hearing the matter, the Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that the Congress leader should not have resorted to "collective denunciation" of an organisation and said he will have to face trial in the defamation case if he does not express regret.
"We have held it may be historically correct but the fact or the statement has to meet the test of public good. You can't make collective denunciation," the SC bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and R F Nariman said and wondered "why he made a speech quoting wrong historical fact".
The apex court said it has applied its mind and Rahul Gandhi will have to face the trial in the case.
Rahul had moved the Supreme Court in May last year for quashing the criminal defamation case pending before a magisterial court in Bhiwandi. The apex court had granted interim stay on the proceedings of the case before the magisterial court.
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