 "Rahul Gandhi’s remarks in US on Sikhs draw ire: How Congress leader’s foreign trips have courted rows")
Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, who is on his first foreign trip as the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, has kicked up a political storm back home. His remarks in the United States have made him a target of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has accused him of “insulting” India.
Gandhi’s statements on Sikhs in the country have irked the BJP leaders. This is not the first time the Congress leader has drawn flak from the ruling party over his comments during his foreign trips.
Let’s take a closer look.
What has Rahul Gandhi said?
Rahul Gandhi spoke about the state of religious freedom in India while addressing the Indian diaspora at an event in Herndon, Virginia, on Monday (September 9).
Interacting with a member of the Indian community, Gandhi asked his name, adding that the fight in India was about whether a Sikh would be allowed to practice their religion in the country.
“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 a Sikh is going to be able to go to Gurdwara. That’s what the fight is about and not just for him, for all religions,” Gandhi said, as per ANI.
Earlier, he hit out at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological parent. Addressing a gathering in Texas, Gandhi said that the RSS believes India is “one idea” but the Congress considers it a “multiplicity of ideas”.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsOn the low participation of Indian women in the workforce, the Congress MP described the attitude of a large number of men towards women in the country as “ridiculous”. He added this attitude is also a part of the “ideological fight” between the BJP and the opposition, as per an NDTV report.
“BJP/RSS believe that women should be restricted to a particular role, they should stay at home, cook food, they should not talk too much, we believe women should be allowed to aspire to whatever they want to do,” he said.
Raising the issue of unemployment, Gandhi said the problem is faced by India and the West but not China.
“The West has an employment problem. India has an employment problem… But many countries in the world don’t have an employment problem. China certainly doesn’t have an employment problem. Vietnam doesn’t have an employment problem,” he said at the University of Texas in the US.
He claimed the West, America, Europe and India have “given up on the idea of production” and handed it to China.
The Congress leader stressed there is no dearth of skills in India and it could challenge China if the country starts aligning for production. “Many people say that India has a problem with skills. I don’t think India has a problem with skills. I think… India does not have respect for people who possess skills,” he reportedly said.
BJP attacks Rahul Gandhi
The BJP has slammed Gandhi over his remarks in the US. Union minister and senior party leader Hardeep Singh Puri invoked the 1984 Sikh riots to attack the Congress leader. “He (Rahul Gandhi) speaks without knowing the facts,” the BJP leader said.
Puri said he was a “proud Sikh”, adding that the BJP government has “gone out of its way to address the issues concerning the Sikh community”, reported India Today.
VIDEO | "Whatever he (Rahul Gandhi) said about the Sikh community is factually incorrect. Where has it ever been said that Sikhs cannot wear turbans? I am not aware of any such thing. I don't know where he is getting this kind of inspiration from. He is criticising the country,… pic.twitter.com/13TUaxmCSN
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 10, 2024
“In 1984, 3000 innocent people were killed. They were dragged out of the house. These are all documented facts about this. The only time Sikhs felt anxiety and a sense of insecurity was during Rajiv Gandhi’s time (1984),” the Union Minister added.
BJP leader RP Singh threatened to take Gandhi to court if he reiterated his statements on Sikhs in India. “3000 Sikhs were massacred in Delhi; their turbans were taken off, their hair was chopped off and beard was shaved…He (Rahul Gandhi) doesn’t say that this happened when they (Congress) were in power…I challenge Rahul Gandhi to repeat in India what he is saying about Sikhs, and then I will file a case against him and will drag him to court," he told ANI.
#WATCH | Delhi: "...3000 Sikhs were massacred in Delhi, their turbans were taken off, their hair was chopped off and beard was shaved...He (Rahul Gandhi) doesn't say that this happened when they (Congress) were in power...I challenge Rahul Gandhi to repeat in India what he is… https://t.co/fOnkpaWW0V pic.twitter.com/kUJPpkC2ak
— ANI (@ANI) September 10, 2024
Gandhi also came under fire over his employment remarks, with the BJP claiming it had exposed his “love for China”.
“Rahul Gandhi’s mention of the problem of employment in India shows what he thinks about India. After the arrival of the Prime Minister, lakhs of jobs are being created, if there is a problem with employment today, then the reason for this is that the Congress could not create such a system in its long rule that employment is created in the same proportion as the population increases,” BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal said.
The BJP allies – the TDP and the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) – also targeted Gandhi for “abusing” India on foreign soil.
Gandhi’s remark that the Congress will consider scrapping reservations only when “India is a fair place” during an interaction with students and the faculty of Georgetown University in Washington DC, has also hit a nerve back home.
STORY | We will think of scrapping reservation when India is a fair place: Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi)
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) September 10, 2024
READ: https://t.co/YFI3ZwOKQD
VIDEO:
(Source: Third Party)
(Full video available on PTI Videos - https://t.co/n147TvqRQz) pic.twitter.com/usfRm3uE1d
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati alleged the Congress did nothing for the deprived castes despite decades in power. She warned Gandhi’s “drama” proves that Congress has been “conspiring to end reservation for years”.
3. इन वर्गों के लोग कांग्रेसी नेता श्री राहुल गाँधी के दिए गए इस घातक बयान से सावधान रहें, क्योंकि यह पार्टी केन्द्र की सत्ता में आते ही, अपने इस बयान की आड़ में इनका आरक्षण जरूर खत्म कर देगी। ये लोग संविधान व आरक्षण बचाने का नाटक करने वाली इस पार्टी से जरूर सजग रहें।
— Mayawati (@Mayawati) September 10, 2024
Slamming Gandhi, Union minister Chirag Paswan said his statements had laid bare the Congress’ mindset. “Rahul Gandhi ji, let alone ending reservation, even thinking about it is a crime!”
Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan alleged Gandhi was “spoiling the image” of the country with his remarks, which he said was “equivalent to treason”.
Previous rows during Rahul Gandhi’s foreign visits
Gandhi attracted the ire of the BJP earlier, too, during his foreign trips. The Congress leader has not shied away from taking digs at Prime Minister Narendra Modi or the BJP in his remarks abroad, angering the saffron party.
Last March, the Congress MP caused a furore in the country when he alleged that freedom of speech has been “stifled” in India since the BJP government came to power in 2014. “The institutional framework that is required for democracy, Parliament, a free press, the judiciary these are all under attack. We are facing an attack on the basic structure of Indian democracy,” he had told a gathering at the United Kingdom ’s Cambridge University.
Slamming Gandhi for his ‘state of Indian democracy’ comments, several BJP ministers had demanded an apology from him.
In an interaction with British parliamentarians in London during his UK trip, the Congress leader had reportedly said it was “quite rough” being an MP in India.
In 2022, speaking to students at Cambridge University, Gandhi had said India is not a not a “nation” but a “union of states”. He had also attacked PM Modi, saying the BJP leader’s vision for the country excluded “huge chunks of our population”.
Gandhi’s meeting with the former head of the British Labour Party and MP Jeremy Corbyn had also sparked controversy in India.
The BJP accused Gandhi of “insulting the country” on his foreign trips last May when the Congress leader was in the US. Addressing the Indian diaspora in Santa Clara, California, he alleged the RSS and the BJP are “controlling” all the instruments of politics in India.
His comments garnered sharp reactions from the BJP. Union Minister Anurag Thakur told ANI, “Rahul Gandhi on his foreign trips wants to insult the Prime Minister but ends up insulting the country. He doesn’t even consider India as a nation and calls it a union of states. He raises questions about India’s progress. What does he want to achieve on his foreign visits? Is mud-slinging all that he has left to do?”
Gandhi slammed the BJP and RSS in San Francisco while claiming that “poor and people from minority communities feel helpless today”.
Responding to a question from a member of the ‘Bay Area Muslim community’, Gandhi said, “The way you (Muslims) are feeling attacked, I can guarantee Sikhs, Christians, Dalits, Tribals are feeling the same. What is happening to Muslims in India today happened to Dalits in the 1980s”.
Hitting out at Gandhi over these remarks, Thakur said that the Congress MP “insults Bharat (India), Bharatiyas (Indians), and Bhartiyata (Indianness), the nation will never accept this”.
The Congress has maintained its defence of Gandhi’s remarks abroad that criticising the BJP is not akin to criticising India.
With inputs from agencies
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