Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes in the same ideology as Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse, but does not have the courage to say so, ANI reported.

“Nathuram Godse shot Mahatma Gandhi because he did not believe in himself, he loved no one, he cared for nobody, he believed in nobody,” the Congress leader said while addressing a gathering at Kalpetta town in Wayanad district of Kerala. “And it is the same with our prime minister, he only loves himself, only believes in himself. He is not interested in listening to the billions of voices of this country.”

Gandhi said that the Congress will fight Modi’s ideology the same way it fought Godse’s. He made the remarks on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 72nd death anniversary. The Congress leader is an MP from Wayanad.

Gandhi said that Indians were being made to prove that they are Indians, referring to the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens. “Who is Narendra Modi to decide if I am Indian?” the Congress leader said. “Who has given him the licence to decide who is Indian and who is not? I know I am an Indian and I do not have to prove it to anybody.”

The former Congress president said that when Modi is asked about unemployment, he distracts them by bringing up matters such as the amended citizenship law and the NRC. “NRC and CAA are not going to get jobs, the situation in Kashmir and burning Assam are not going to get jobs for our youth,” Gandhi said.

Rahul Gandhi led a protest march against the Citizenship Amendment Act in Kalpetta on Thursday, PTI reported. The march, called “Save the Constitution”, was attended by hundreds of workers who held the party’s flags. Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly Ramesh Chennithala, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President Mullappally Ramachandran and All India Congress Committee Secretary KC Venugopal were among the senior leaders who participated in the rally.

Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind had earlier in the day paid homage to Mahatma Gandhi in Delhi.

The Citizenship Amendment Act provides citizenship to refugees from six minority religious communities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, provided they have lived in India for six years and entered the country by December 31, 2014. The Act has been widely criticised for excluding Muslims. Twenty-six people died in last month’s protests against the law – all in the BJP-ruled states of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Assam.

On Wednesday, two people died when a protest turned violent in Murshidabad in Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal. A local Trinamool Congress leader in the district’s Jalangi block was accused of opening fire on the demonstrators.

The NRC, on the other hand, is a proposed nationwide exercise to differentiate undocumented immigrants from genuine Indian citizens. One such exercise, carried out in Assam last year, led to the exclusion of over 19 lakh people.