Rahul Gandhi attacks RSS again, BJP hits back over his comments on Sikhs
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accused RSS of considering some religions, languages, and communities as inferior while maintaining the fight in India was about this
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has doubled down on his attack on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s ideological fount Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), saying it considers some religions, languages, and communities as inferior while maintaining the fight in India was about this and not politics.
“First of all, you have to understand what the fight is about. The fight is not about politics. That is superficial,” said Gandhi at a gathering of Indian Americans in the Washington DC suburb of Herndon on Monday.
Gandhi, who is on a four-day visit to the US, elaborated his point after asking a Sikh attendee in the front row to give his name. “What is your name, brother with the turban?”
He said the fight was about whether a Sikh was going to be allowed to wear his turban in India or a kada, two of the five articles of the faith in Sikhism. “Or he, as a Sikh, is going to be able to go to Gurdwara? That is what the fight is about. And not just for him, for all religions,” said Gandhi.
Union minister and BJP leader Hardeep Singh Puri hit back, calling Gandhi’s remarks “sinister”. He accused Gandhi of trying to spread falsehood among Sikhs abroad. “I condemn in the strongest terms the statement he has made about Sikhs not being able to wear turbans and kadas.”
Puri referred to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots during the Congress’s rule. “If there has been one time in our history when as a community, we have felt anxiety, a sense of insecurity and existential threat, it has been the times when Rahul Gandhi’s family has been in the seats of power,” said Puri.
“In 1984, a pogrom was carried out against the Sikh community. As many as 3,000 innocent people were killed. People were dragged out of their homes, tyres were put around them, and burnt alive.”
Puri said Gandhi was making statements on sensitive issues involving national identity, the strength of unity, and diversity”. “I think he is trying to set a new kind of narrative which I think is dangerous,” he said. “I think this is far more sinister because Rahul Gandhi was trying to spread a false narrative while speaking in front of those, who belong to my community and are trying to eke out a living in the US with hard work and honesty.”
On Sunday, Gandhi called for the need for independent people to helm India’s education system while accusing RSS of damaging it. He said the education system was feeding ideologies and RSS was placing most of the vice-chancellors.
Gandhi, who spoke to students and members of the diaspora in Texas on Sunday, said the RSS believes India is one idea while they believe India is a multiplicity of ideas. He added that much like the US, they believe everyone should be allowed to participate and given space.
Gandhi said this was their fight. He added this was crystallised in the 2024 national election when millions of people understood that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was attacking India’s Constitution of India. Gandhi said the 2024 election ended the BJP’s fear. He reiterated the government was favouring select business houses.