Lok Sabha Elections: ‘Mahatma Gandhi said soon after Independence…’ Rajnath Singh reiterates ‘abolish Congress’ remark

Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Union Defence Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Lucknow Lok Sabha constituency, Rajnath Singh, reiterated claims on Wednesday that Mahatma Gandhi sought to abolish Congress right after India got Independence in 1947. 

The saffron party periodically repeats the claim that Mahatma Gandhi sought the abolishment of Congress, which sparked debates in 2017, 2019, and 2023. 

On Wednesday, Rajnath Singh said, "Mahatma Gandhi said that soon after Independence, the Congress should be abolished. But the Congress did not listen to Mahatma Gandhi, and now the people are helping abolish Congress.” 

In the Lok Sabha elections, the people will fulfil two of Mahatma Gandhi's wishes, including one that India should become a strong nation of the world, Rajnath Singh said.

At a roadshow held ahead of BJP candidate Manoj Tiwari's nomination filing for Lok Sabha Elections 2024 in North East Delhi, Rajnath Singh said, "I believe that BJP will register a major victory on all seats of Delhi. The two phases of elections have made it clear that our slogan of ‘400 paar' is becoming a reality."

Over the years, as part of their political rhetoric against the Congress, non-Congress politicians including Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, Venkaiah Naidu, and Jayalalithaa, have claimed that Gandhi believed the Congress should have been dissolved or disbanded after Independence.

In 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Mahatma Gandhi had long ago realised that Congress has the maximum receiving capacity for all ailments. Hence, then only he had called for disintegrating the Congress. ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’ is not my slogan, but I am just fulfilling the wish of Mahatma Gandhi.”

Mahatma Gandhi in his 1909 book ‘Hind Swaraj’ had wrote, “The Congress brought together Indians from different parts of India, and enthused us with the idea of nationality… All I have to show is that the Congress gave us a foretaste of Home Rule. To deprive it of the honour is not proper, and for us to do so would not only be ungrateful, but retard the fulfillment of our object. To treat the Congress as an institution inimical to our growth as a nation would disable us from using that body.”