RSS "gradually taking control" over Indian Statistical Institute: Congress

New Delhi [India], December 21 (ANI): Congress on Sunday claimed that Indian Statistical Institute students revealed to Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi that Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is gradually taking institutional control over the institute.
In a post on X, Congress said, "Leader of the Opposition Shri Rahul Gandhi met with students from the Indian Statistical Institute in 'Jansansad' and discussed various issues."
Congress further claimed that students revealed that "the RSS is gradually taking institutional control there."
"Bureaucratic and ideological interference is being imposed. Even the Syllabus and Research are being controlled by the RSS ideology," Congress said in the post on X.
"Rahul Gandhi ji has assured the students that we will not allow this to happen. The country's educational institutions will be run not by any ideology, but by knowledge and science," the party added.

नेता विपक्ष श्री @RahulGandhi ने 'जनसंसद' में Indian Statistical Institute के छात्रों से मुलाकात कर, अनेक मुद्दों पर चर्चा की।

Indian Statistical Institute कोई सामान्य संस्थान नहीं है, लेकिन छात्रों ने बताया कि वहां धीरे-धीरे संस्थागत रूप से RSS का कब्ज़ा हो रहा है।… pic.twitter.com/PfoiiHOrv9

— Congress (@INCIndia) December 21, 2025

Congress has repeatedly accused RSS of "capturing" institutions of the country, including the Supreme Court and the Election Commission.
Earlier, Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP and the RSS of capturing the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate.
"I am saying that institutions of India are captured, and I will come to the point that the Election Commission is captured. The project of the RSS was to capture the institutional framework of the country and I said how the education system has been captured. Vice Chancellor after Vice Chancellor after Vice Chancellor is placed not on merit, not on capability, not on scientific temper, but on the fact that he belongs to a particular organisation," he said.
"Second capture, which helps in destroying democracy, the capture of the intelligence agencies, we have the Home Minister sitting here, the capture of the CBI, of the ED, of the Income Tax Department, and the systematic placement of bureaucrats who favour their ideology and attack the opposition and anybody who chooses to oppose the RSS," he said.
He accused RSS of believing in a hierarchy and that "they believe that they should be on top of that hierarchy."
"It is the idea that every thread, every person in the Union of India is equal that disturbs my friends in the RSS. They are happy to see the fabric, but they cannot stand the idea that every single person in the fabric of our country, regardless of what religion they come from, regardless of what community they come from, regardless of what language they speak, should be equal because they fundamentally do not believe in equality. They believe in a hierarchy, and they believe that they should be on top of that hierarchy," Rahul Gandhi said. (ANI)