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BJP ‘spreading lies’ over US remarks: Rahul
The leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said the BJP was desperate to silence him because they could not stand the truth.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday asked the Sikh community if his comments about freedom of religion made in the US recently were incorrect, as he accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of spreading lies.
The leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said the BJP was desperate to silence him because they could not stand the truth.
“The BJP has been spreading lies about my remarks in America. I want to ask every Sikh brother and sister in India and abroad — is there anything wrong in what I have said? Shouldn’t India be a country where every Sikh — and every Indian — can freely practise their religion without fear?” Gandhi said in a post on X.
“As usual, the BJP is resorting to lies. They are desperate to silence me because they cannot stand the truth. But I will always speak up for the values that define India: our unity in diversity, equality, and love,” he said while sharing a short clip of his remarks in the US where he referred to a Sikh man.
Addressing a gathering of Indian-Americans in Herndon, a Virginia suburb of Washington DC, on September 10, Gandhi said, “First of all, you have to understand what the fight is about. The fight is not about politics. That is superficial.”
Gandhi asked one of the Sikh attendees in the front rows to give his name. “The fight is about whether he, as a Sikh, is going to be allowed to wear his turban in India or he, as a Sikh, is going to be allowed to wear a ‘kada’ in India. Or he, as a Sikh, is going to be able to go to a gurdwara. That’s what the fight is about. And not just for him, for all religions,” the Congress leader had said.
On Saturday, the BJP cited a joint statement of several Sikh groups to ask him to withdraw his statement, which it alleged had created an atmosphere of fear in the country.
BJP leader Manjinder Singh Sirsa told reporters several Sikh and gurdwara management bodies had met Union minister of state for home Nityanand Rai over the issue and that he asserted the sacrifices of the Sikhs had made the country strong.
