Rahul Gandhi defends his comments on Sikhs, accuses BJP of spreading lies to silence him from speaking the truth

“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?” Mr. Gandhi wrote in an X post.

Breaking his silence on the controversy over his statements in the U.S., Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Saturday (September 21, 2024) accused the BJP of spreading lies and accused the ruling party of trying to silence him from speaking the truth.

In a post on X, Mr. Gandhi shared a video clip, which runs for one minute and 50 seconds, and asked Sikhs whether there was anything wrong in what he had said and if India should not be a country where every Indian could practise their religion without fear.

“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?” he asked.

“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,” Mr. Gandhi added.

In the clip, from a diaspora event in Herndon, a Virginia suburb of Washington D.C., Mr. Gandhi asks the name of a Sikh gentleman seated on the front row seat and then says, “First of all, you have to understand what the fight is about. The fight is not about politics. That is superficial.”

“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,” Mr. Gandhi added.

The Congress leader then accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of treating certain States, languages, religions and communities as inferior to others. “We are of the opinion, whether you are from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, all of you have your history, tradition and language and every single one of them is as important as any other one,” he added.

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Mr. Gandhi asserted that the fight is about what type of India one is going to have. “Are we going to have an India where people are allowed to believe what they want to believe, people are allowed to respect what they want to respect, say what they want to say. Or are we going to have an India where only a few limited people can decide what is going to happen?” he noted.

Published - September 21, 2024 07:41 pm IST