On February 28 this year, Rahul Gandhi reiterated the talking points of the global Khalistan movement during his infamous presentation at the University of Cambridge.
The Congress scion randomly called out a Sikh man from the audience and claimed that Sikhs have been rendered second-class citizens in India by the Narendra Modi government.
At about 53:40 minutes into the programme, Rahul Gandhi claimed, “He (Narendra Modi) is imposing an idea on India that India cannot absorb. India, as I said, is a Union of states. It’s a negotiation and if you try to force one idea on a union, it will react.”
The Congress ecosystem has been trying to diminish the idea of India from a centuries-old civilisation State to a nation, bound by mere agreements between different States.
During his presentation, Rahul Gandhi suggested that such a Union of States has the possibility to react (disintegrate/ secede) at any time if ‘one idea of nationhood’ is imposed.
Despite being well aware that the global Khalistan movement has been trying to brainwash the Sikh community, he exploited the opportunity at Cambridge University to present a distorted image of India to the world.
“I mean I have got a Sikh gentleman sitting here. He is from the Sikh religion. And he comes from India, right? We have got Muslims in India, Christians in India, and we have got different languages in India…They are all India,” Rahul Gandhi had said.
“Mr Narendra Modi says he is not (a real Indian). Mr Narendra Modi says he (the Sikh guy in the room) is a second-class citizen in India. I don’t agree with him,” said Gandhi while making outlandish claims about the plight of the Sikh community in India.
Congress and the Khalistan Movement
The false assertions of Rahul Gandhi emboldened the Khalistani elements who have eagerly been waiting to legitimise their claim for a separate land.
The Khalistan movement surfaced in Punjab in the 1980s under Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a terrorist initially patronised by Indira Gandhi and Congress but later eliminated when he turned into a ‘Frankenstein’.
After years of fighting the Pakistan-backed insurgency in the State, the Khalistan movement was defeated. Extremists associated with the movement operated largely from outside of the country.
The anti-farm law agitation, supported by Congress, witnessed the resurgence of the separatist movement (also coinciding with the Referendum 2020). Opindia had documented in detail how protest camps had become the breeding ground for Khalistani extremists.
Bolstered by the success of the anti-farm law movement, Khalistanis began creating chaos and unrest in the State (often attacking the Hindu community in the process).
At a time when the law enforcement apparatus in Punjab has failed to tame Khalistani leaders such as Amritpal Singh, Rahul Gandhi is feeding into the propaganda that has been drawing the support of the Sikh community towards the dangerous movement.
The narrative of Muslims as second-class citizens and the aftermath
During his talk at the University of Cambridge, Rahul Gandhi also made a sweeping claim that Muslims in India are also ‘second class citizens’ according to Narendra Modi.
By doing so, the Congress scion played into the hands of the Islamists who have been hellbent on indoctrinating Muslims en masse that they are not safe in India.
The vitriolic narrative had been in motion for a long time and amplified by several folds after the Narendra Modi government was voted to power in 2014.
Disinformation surrounding initiatives such as the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was peddled on a large scale. This led to violence, destruction of properties, and targeted attacks on Hindus and ultimately culminated in the Delhi riots of 2020.
At a time when Hindus are facing large-scale attacks at the hands of Islamists, Rahul Gandhi should have exercised restraint and refrained from presenting a distorted image of India on the global forum.
