India will never accept the whims of an emperor or dictator, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said in his Republic Day message to the country on Thursday. He added that the occasion called for reflecting on, reaffirming and “celebrating the values enshrined in our Constitution”, PTI reported.

In an apparent reference to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Congress leader also said that accepting the Constitution meant not imposing any ideology on the public. “If India has succeeded, its credit goes to everyone,” he said. “Our strength is the voice of every Indian...We have to preserve and protect this message of our heritage and help fulfill its dreams.”

Similarly, Congress President Sonia Gandhi said the country’s strength lay in its Constitutional values, and that people had to “fight forces that seek to undermine them”. She said she saluted “the freedom fighters and founding fathers of the Indian Republic” and also those who drafted the country’s Constitution.

The messages from both Congress leaders comes even as the party continues to struggle to find its footing as an Opposition party. Congress began its new year negotiating an alliance with the Akhilesh Yadav faction of the Samajwadi Party as well as dealing with the fallout of defections from its Arunachal Pradesh unit and sexist remarks by a senior Karnataka leader.