Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has hit out at the RSS over a now-deleted article on the land holdings of Catholic institutions, published by its affiliated magazine Organiser, claiming it reflected a targeted campaign against minorities.

Sharing a news report on the Organiser article, Gandhi alleged that the RSS, after attacking Muslims through the Waqf Bill, has now turned its attention towards Christians.

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“I had said that the Waqf Bill attacks Muslims now but sets a precedent to target other communities in the future. It didn’t take long for the RSS to turn its attention to Christians. The Constitution is the only shield that protects our people from such attacks – and it is our collective duty to defend it,” Gandhi said in a post on X.

He also shared the news report on an article published by RSS-linked Organiser on the land holdings of Catholic institutions.

As per the report Gandhi shared, the web portal of Organiser claimed that the land holding of Catholic institutions stands at 7 crore hectares, terming it “the largest non-governmental land owner”.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also slammed the BJP-RSS over the article, saying it “lays bare the Sangh Parivar’s deep-rooted antagonism towards minorities”.

“…it reveals a deliberate, step-by-step attempt to target and isolate minorities and their institutions. Secular forces must unite in resistance,” Vijayan said.

Amid the row, the BJP clarified that the article was written by a journalist and was later deleted due to inaccuracies.

Responding to Rahul Gandhi’s post, former Union Minister and BJP Kerala president Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “One thing I recommend to Constitution-waving, India-bashing @RahulGandhi is that he reads, learns the Constitution before he uses it for his #CongPoliticsOfLies.”

Clarifying on the news article published by the RSS-linked web portal, he said, “Insofar as this article by Organiser was concerned, some journo wrote a piece about land owned by Christian bodies – I understand they found it to be inaccurate and deleted it.”

“Owning land is not a crime, just as vast amounts of land is owned by Railways, Army, plantation owners etc. However, grabbing it from people as Congress leaders in Karnataka do and Waqf tried to do is wrong. Scamming people, lying to people, poisoning people with lies, betraying people who vote for you etc – that is wrong. That is what Rahul Congress does,” he added.