Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the hate project of the RSS-BJP had not only weakened the country but was also antithetical to Indian culture, and was therefore “anti-national”.

Fielding questions at a news conference in Telangana, the state the Bharat Jodo Yatra is now passing through, Rahul said the walkathon amounted to taking an ideological position against this hate project.

“It’s of course completely political. It is a political action to spread the message across the country that the hatred and violence propagated by the RSS-BJP is weakening the country,” the Congress leader said.

“Spreading hate is anti-national activity. That’s not the Indian culture; the Indian culture is harmonious, peaceful and affectionate. That’s the idea behind the Yatra. Lakhs and lakhs of people are coming to the Yatra. They are demonstrating what being an Indian means.”

He added: “They are demonstrating that being Indian means respecting another Indian; being affectionate to others. This is an extremely powerful thing. It is a humbling experience for me to see how wise people are.”

His comment appeared to turn on its head the standard application of “anti-national”, a term the BJP has used to attack those who question the majoritarian and sectarian thrust of its politics and speak up for secular and democratic values.

Rahul suggested the RSS-BJP brand of politics stemmed from fear.

“The BJP is an emotion. That emotion is very strong in the leadership of the RSS-BJP. I have read Savarkar and Golwalkar.... At the superficial level, it looks like hatred. Scratch a bit and you see fear. Hatred comes from that fear,” he said.

“The Congress is also an emotion, as taught by Mahatma Gandhi. It is the opposite of fear. The moment the Congress party starts spreading the idea, ‘Confront your fear, don’t be a coward, because hatred is cowardice’, naturally, the BJP will start to collapse.”

Savarkar and Golwalkar were Hindu supremacists who remain the BJP’s icons even as the party publicly tom-toms its “sabka sath, sabka viswas (support for all, trust of all)” line and tries to claim the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel at global and national platforms.

Rahul stressed that the politics of divisiveness could be defeated only by connecting with the people and explaining to them the nature of the ideological battle.

He said the Congress was spreading a message through the Bharat Jodo Yatra that it was prepared to defend the Gandhian values of tolerance and peaceful coexistence.

Asked whether he had succeeded in this task through the Yatra, Rahul said: “This is an effective step.”

To a question about how the idea had originated, he said: “I wanted to tour India but it was delayed because of Covid. Then two-three leaders also suggested to me about the Bharat tour.

“I don’t know whether the idea came to my mind first or theirs. But to tell you the truth, I wanted to walk through India when I was not even in politics, at the age of 25-26. I couldn’t do it, but there was a desire.”