RSS-BJP does not have guts to change Constitution: Rahul Gandhi

'Respect and mohabbat (love) is in India’s DNA…the hatred that we see is because of injustice…this is what I have found during the two Yatras,' the Congress leader said.

Mumbai: The RSS-BJP does not have the guts to change the Constitution of India, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said wrapping up his 10,000-kms-plus two-phase march at the birthplace of the grand old party in Mumbai even as he asserted that love and respect is in India’s DNA.

“There is nothing to worry…they (BJP and RSS) do not have the guts to change the Constitution…truth and Hindustan is with all of us,” Gandhi said on Sunday while hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on multiple issues.

The function was held at the Gokuldas Tejpal Auditorium (earlier Gokuldas Tejpal Sanskrit College), where Congress was formed on 28 December, 1985, when 72 leaders, social reformers, journalists and lawyers congregated for the first session of the Indian National Congress, marking the start of what is now known as the grand old party.

Allan Octavian Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji, Womesh Chunder Bonnerjee, Badruddin Tyabji, and Pherozeshah Mehta were some of the delegates present at this event.

The Hall is just off the Gowalia Tank Maidan (now August Kranti Maidan), from where on 8 August, 1942, the clarion call for ‘Bharat Chhodo Andolan’ (Quit India Movement) was given, with the mantra of "do or die” by Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation.

The Sunday morning event in Mumbai marked the culmination of 150-day 4,080-km-long Bharat Jodo Yatra (BJY), from September 7, 2022-January 30, 2023 and 66-day 6,600-km-long Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (BJNY), from January 14-March 16, 2024.

A day earlier, Gandhi completed the final leg of his all-India tour - during which he has travelled from South to North and East to West - at the Chaityabhoomi, where the last rites of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar were held, by reading out the Preamble of the Constitution.

“Respect and mohabbat (love) is in India’s DNA…the hatred that we see is because of injustice…this is what I have found during the two Yatras,” said Gandhi, who was accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi.

“India is the first country which fought the fight for independence with love….When I went to South Africa, Nelson Mandela said that - Gandhi ji and India have shown us the path to freedom,” he said.

“No movement is built if you are unable to see the plight of others,” Gandhi said hours before the meeting of the I.N.D.I.A. opposition bloc at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Maidan at Dadar in Mumbai.

“It is not about Rahul and Congress or Modi and BJP,” he said, adding that Modi and RSS think that they only have knowledge. “In the country, the loans of a few billionaires are waived, but not a single rupee was waived for the farmers,” he said, adding: “Today, on one hand, a few people have all the wealth of the country. On the other hand, injustice is being done to youth, farmers and labourers.”

“Our guarantee is the voice of Hindustan, which we have created by asking and listening to the general public. BJP can never do this work, because everything there comes from above,” he said.

Before the meeting, Rahul and Priyanka, accompanied visited Mani Bhavan, from where Gandhi ji initiated the Non-Cooperation, Satyagraha, Swadeshi, Khadi and Khilafat movements. Gandhiji’s association with charkha began in 1917 while he stayed in Mani Bhavan. Rahul was accompanied by Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.