New Delhi: While the Congress on Tuesday said that Rahul Gandhi will not tender an apology over his remarks against the RSS and will instead substantiate them with historical facts and evidence before the court to support his claim, the RSS hit back at both the Congress and its vice- president, saying the Congress has consistently tried to “spread lies about it.”

“On a suggestion of Rahul Gandhi expressing regret or apology, the question does not arise. Such a suggestion has been made in the past and not accepted by Rahul Gandhi.

“Mr Gandhi is a mature politician with intimate knowledge of historical facts. Congress Party and Mr Gandhi will defend these remarks at appropriate forum,” Congress’ chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala said.

He said since the matter is pending adjudication, “we will not like to comment further on the issue”. He further said that Rahul Gandhi had challenged constitutionality of defamation proceeding besides the order of Maharashtra High Court wherein summoning order was challenged.

He said while the bunch of petitions challenging defamation provisions have been rejected, challenge to Maharashtra High Court order is pending adjudication before Supreme Court in a Special leave petition.

RSS killed Gandhi, not same as Godse killed Gandhi, says SC
In the last hearing in November 2015, the Supreme Court had offered Mr Gandhi an opportunity to express regret over the remarks and give the issue a “decent burial”. But his senior counsel Kapil Sibal had said that Mr Gandhi would not offer an apology and was ready to argue the matter.

Mr Gandhi’s lawyers had then told the court that whatever was said in the speech was on the basis of government records and on the basis of decision of Punjab and Haryana high court and he was not referring to RSS directly.

The bench, after perusing the judgment of Punjab and Haryana high court, had said it only says that Nathuram Godse was an RSS worker and added that Godse killed Gandhi and RSS killed Gandhi are two different things.