A BJP-backed Sikh group is holding a protest march to the residence of Congress’s Sonia Gandhi in Delhi, objecting to Rahul Gandhi’s remarks in the US on religious freedom enjoyed by the community in the country. Contending that they are more secure under the BJP government than they were during the Congress rule, they are demanding that Mr Gandhi apologise for his remarks.
During his three day visit to the US, Mr Gandhi had said the fight in India is not about politics.
Asking a Sikh member of the audience his name, Mr Gandhi had said: “The fight is about whether he, as a Sikh, is going to be allowed to wear a turban in India; or whether, he, as a Sikh, will be allowed to wear a kada in India; or whether he, as a Sikh, is allowed to go to a Gurudwara. That’s what the fight is about, and not just for him, but for all religions”.
The remarks have raised hackles back home, and the BJP has accused him of habitually making anti-national comments abroad, which is particularly serious now in view of his current position as the Leader Of the Opposition.
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri has called Mr Gandhi’s comments “sinister”, and accused him of spreading “dangerous narratives” abroad.
Referring to the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, the minister said, “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”.
While Mr Gandhi’s comments have been in line with the Congress’s secular credentials and its stance of religious freedom, its timing has been awkward in view of the anti-India narrative spread by a section of expat Sikhs.