Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge

NEW DELHI: Mahatma Gandhi called RSS a “communal body with totalitarian outlook”, Congress said Thursday, even as it underlined that on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti, BJP paid tr-ibute to the organisation closely linked to his killers. Cong-ress netas Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi paid tribute to Gandhi.Citing the second volume of the book by Gandhi’s secretary Pyarelal, ‘Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase’, spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said the description of RSS as a communal body came in his conversation with a colleague on Sept 12, 1947, and five months later, then Union home minister Sardar Patel banned RSS.Ramesh said Patel, on Dec 16, 1948, spoke at the Congress session in Jaipur. “He warned that any organisation which sought to supplant the national flag by another would be sternly dealt with,” stated a report, attached in his X post.