'Can meet him, hug him, but...': Rahul Gandhi's big statement on cousin Varun

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said he can meet and hug his cousin and BJP MP Varun Gandhi but cannot accept his ideology. “My ideology does not match his ideology. I can never go to an RSS office. You can slit my throat, but I will not go. My family has an ideology, it has a thought system,” Gandhi said at a press conference on the sidelines of his Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra. 

“At one time, Varun adopted that ideology, maybe still does, so I cannot accept that,” Gandhi added. He was responding to questions on the possibility that he might reach out to his cousin, the son of Sanjay and Maneka Gandhi. Varun Gandhi has in the past criticised the BJP government's handling of issues like economy and agriculture -- and triggering speculation that he might quit the saffron party. 

The Congress leader said if Varun Gandhi walks into the yatra he might face a problem, implying that the BJP may not approve of it. “I can meet him with love, hug him, but I cannot accept that ideology. That is impossible,” Gandhi said. Answering a related question, he said Varun Gandhi once told him that the RSS was doing good work. The Congress leader recalled that he then told his cousin that if had read about and understood what his family stood for, he wouldn't have said such a thing.