Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has alleged that the RSS is trying to make sure that everybody in the country is "blindly obedient" to what it says and added that the answer to that is resistance.

The idea of India is going through fire to be further strengthened, Gandhi recently told a group of students in Meghalaya during his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

Publishing a video on social media on Friday of the interaction with the students, Gandhi said, "Universities, once bastions of free thought and expression, have now been converted to breeding grounds of fear, suppression, and blind obedience." "Can the future of India spread its wings within a cage? This is why politics and resistance matters for Indian students," he said.

In his interaction with the students along with Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Kanhaiya Kumar, Gandhi asked the students, "What is a slave?" "What the RSS is trying to do to India is trying to make sure everybody is blindly obedient to what they say. Can a country function like that?" he can be heard saying in the video.

Gandhi claimed he wanted to meet the students in their university and not in a closed room.

He alleged that Home Minister Amit Shah "gave an order" to the owner of the university that his conversation with the students was not allowed because he would say things to those students that would make them think about what was going on in India.

"And the answer to this blind obedience is resistance," Gandhi told the students.

"Resistance because as an individual I have my own view of the world," he added.

Sharing a link to the video of the interaction, Ramesh -- the Congress general secretary -- said in a post in Hindi on X, "Recently, during the Bharat Jodo Nyaya Yatra, Rahul Gandhi interacted with students in Meghalaya on many issues, including youth politics, atmosphere of fear and pressure spread in universities." During this, Rahul Gandhi openly answered the questions of the students, he said.

Ramesh further said the things Gandhi said are applicable not only to the northeast but to universities of the entire country.

He also posted a short clip from the same interaction in which a student asked a question to Gandhi and Kumar regarding the entry of youngsters into politics, to which both said those dissuading them from entering politics tell them it is dirty and not worth it when changes in the country are brought about only through politics.

The Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra has taken a pre-planned break after 12 continuous days and will resume on January 28 with a padyatra in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri.

Having passed through Manipur, Nagaland, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya and Cooch Behar in West Bengal, the yatra stopped for a pre-planned break on Thursday afternoon.

The yatra will resume at 2 pm on January 28 with a padyatra in Jalpaiguri, followed by a padyatra and a public address in Siliguri.

Gandhi is undertaking the over 6,700-kilometre Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Manipur to Mumbai.

The yatra entered Cooch Behar early on Thursday where Gandhi was accorded a rousing welcome by party workers. The yatra flag was handed over to the Congress' West Bengal chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury by the Assam Congress.

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