By IANS

BENGALURU: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Friday warned the ruling NDA government against distorting the Constitution and implementing the agenda of the RSS.

"The aim of the union government is to distort the Constitution, which was drafted by B.R. Ambedkar, and implement the RSS agenda. We should go by what Ambedkar had exhorted us to do - educate, organise and agitate," he said at an international conference here.

Inaugurating an international conference on "Quest for Equity: Reclaiming Social Justice, Re-visiting Ambedkar", Gandhi said truth and power were not the same.

"Truth and power are not the same thing. Truth is what stands up to power," he told the gathering at the opening ceremony of the three-day conference organised by the state government.

Citing a few influential leaders and change makers the world over, Gandhi said iconic personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar and and American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr had the ability and courage to speak the truth of power.

"Though the emperor is naked, none had the courage to point it out due to oppression, weakening of the institutions and subversion of democracy to serve the narrow purpose of a few," he asserted.

Drawing parallels to Adolf Hitler's assertion that reality was best understood when it was suppressed, he said a dangerous and global epidemic was to distort truth.

Gandhi also decried casteism and untouchability that were still prevalant across the country.

Human rights activist Martin Luther King III, son of the legendary American civil rights leader, said that like US President Donald Trump's campaign, the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had unleahsed animosity against the minorities.

"Parallels abound between the 'alt-right' in the US and the 'Hindu-extreme right' in India," he said.

Organised by the Karnataka government, the conference will unveil the 'Bengaluru Declaration' outlining specific constitutional, institutional and policy responses to concerns of equity, human rights, freedom and democracy.