Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday asked why Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest practitioner of Hindu religion, if the RSS was the protector of Hinduism, contending that the Sangh parivar used religion merely to grab power.

Addressing the foundation day event of the Mahila Congress, Rahul said: “The BJP says it is a Hindu party. One person who understood Hinduism and practised it was Mahatma Gandhi. Even the RSS accepts it. Why did then Godse pump bullets into Gandhi’s chest? The entire world looks up to Gandhi as an idol. Gandhi espoused politics of non-violence. Non-violence is the foundation of the Hindu religion. Then why did Godse kill Gandhi?”

Though the BJP often says Godse had left the RSS when he assassinated Gandhi, the essence of Rahul’s argument was that he was a product of the same ideology. To make his point, he said there couldn’t be any meeting ground between the ideologies of Gandhi and “Godse Savarkar”.

While the RSS-BJP disowns Godse, it is well established that he was a disciple of V.D. Savarkar whom the Sangh parivar still treats as their icon. Savarkar was one of the accused in the Gandhi assassination case but was acquitted because of lack of evidence.

Rahul, who is fighting a legal battle for linking Gandhi’s assassination to the RSS, has been constantly insisting that the ideology and the philosophy that created Godse belonged to the Sangh parivar. There are a good few BJP MPs who hail Godse as a “patriot” and a “true nationalist” and even campaign to wipe out the infamy attached to him. Twitter hashtag “Godse zindabad” has trended in recent years, only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power, on Gandhi’s birth and death anniversary.

Rahul broached this topic on Wednesday to counter the RSS-BJP’s perceived monopoly over Hindu religion, insinuating that the ideology that eliminated the staunchest Hindu cannot be the true representative of its interest.

He has clearly taken upon himself the onerous task of disengaging Hindus from the RSS and demolishing the widely held perception that the BJP is a Hindu party.

Rahul again relied on the Durga-Lakshmi metaphor that he used at his recent Jammu rally ostensibly with the twin objectives of contesting the BJP’s Hindu credentials and the propaganda of the Congress being anti-Hindu.

He said: “Durga is the symbol of power that protects. Lakshmi is not the goddess of wealth as is widely understood. Lakshmi comes from the word Lakshya (goal). The power that helps you achieve your goal comes from Lakshmi. When Modi did note-bandi, did he reduce the power of Lakshmi or enhanced it? When he brought farm laws, did he reduce the power of Lakshmi in farmers’ households or increased it? When we gave the Constitution, RTI, MGNREGA… we increased the power of Durga and Lakshmi in the hands of the people.”

He then mounted a lethal attack on the RSS-BJP: “Ho kya raha hai? Woh apne-aap ko Hindu party kahte hain aur pure desh mein Lakshmi aur Durga par aakraman karte hain. Jahan bhi jaate hain, kahin Lakshmi ko maarte hain, kahin Durga ko maarte hain. Aur kahte hain hum Hindu hain. Ye kis prakar ke Hindu hain? Ye jhoothe Hindu hain. Ye Hindu dharm ka prayog karte hain. Ye dharm ki dalali karte hain magar ye Hindu nahin hain (What is happening? They call themselves a Hindu party and attack Lakshmi and Durga everywhere in the country. Wherever they go, they attack Lakshmi or Durga. And they say they are Hindu. What kind of Hindus are they? They are fake Hindus. They use the Hindu religion. They trade in the religion but they are not Hindus.)”

Rahul said Modi had snatched Durga and Lakshmi from the common people and put them in the hands of a few capitalist friends.

“Modi’s friends have lakhs of crores, the common people have nothing. Made-in-India is a lie but you can’t talk about it. They are scared of the truth. Modi’s life is a lie. He ran away from truth all his life. You see the Congress symbol — the hand. You will see it in every religion. You see Lord Shiva, Mahavir, Buddha, Guru Nanak and you will see the hand. When Muslims pray, you see the hand. We aren’t scared. We will die but won’t surrender. But the RSS-BJP philosophy is ‘daro, aur darao’. They are frightened themselves. Hate is a form of fear.”

BJP national general secretary Arun Singh sought to rebut the Congress leader, saying: “Rahul Gandhi should not make these statements. He is totally disconnected from the ground. He has no information. That is the main problem.”

Rahul’s is doubtless a new discourse, driven by a conscious plan of action to contest the RSS-BJP’s dominance in the Hindu space.

This is different from the regular secular-communal discourse that many in the party believes facilitates the BJP’s position as a Hindu party. Rahul has now run the risk of triggering a debate that may attract charges of competitive religiosity but the Congress says the attempt is to argue that secularism is not anti-religion.