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Rahul Gandhi says India is about its people, PM using hatred to break ties
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said India was being referred to as a territory, but the country was about its people, relationships and that of ties among religions.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday renewed his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government alleging hatred was being used to break the bridge among Indians. He said India was being referred to as a territory, but the country was about its people, relationships and that of ties among religions.
Addressing an event in Malappuram in Kerala, the Wayanad MP said, “They say India is a territory, we say India is people, relationships. It's the relationship between Hindu and Muslim, between Hindu, Muslim and Sikh, between Tamil, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali (-speaking people). My problem with the PM is that he's breaking these relationships.”
Gandhi is on a two-day visit to Kerala to reportedly quell growing dissent in the party's state unit. His trip to the southern state came amid a fresh turmoil that has gripped the party in Punjab following the resignation of Navjot Singh Sidhu as Congress president.
He said every time the PM resorted to hatred to break a bridge, his job and commitment was towards rebuilding the same. “Not just my job but our job. I cannot build a bridge without understanding different traditions, ideas, different religions and different cultures of this country,” Gandhi was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The Congress leader said hurting relationships among Indians was akin to attacking the idea of India. “That is why I oppose him (Modi),” he added.
“What happens if an Indian person gets on a plane and goes to America, does he not remain Indian? Of course, he remains an Indian. So for me, India is the people who live here,” he further said.
He also hit out at Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar for whom, Gandhi said, India was a geography. “They take a pen, draw a map and say this is India. Outside this line, it is not India and inside this line, it is India,” Gandhi said.
“A question arises, what if there was this map but no people living on this territory. Would you still be here? Of course not, because if there would be no people in this territory, you would not say that it is India,” he added.
