Days after casting aspersions on the religious freedom of the Sikh community in India during his trip to the United States, Rahul Gandhi has now blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for quoting him out of context.
In a tweet on Saturday (21st September), he claimed, “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 practice their religion without fear? As usual, the BJP is resorting to lies. They are desperate to silence me because they cannot stand the truth,” the Gandhi scion brazened out.
The BJP has been spreading lies about my remarks in America.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 21, 2024
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 practice their religion… pic.twitter.com/sxNdMavR1X
“But I will always speak up for the values that define India: our unity in diversity, equality, and love,” he claimed. Rahul Gandhi is the leader of the Opposition from the Congress party, which orchestrated the genocide of the Sikh community in 1984.
On 10th September this year, the Gandhi scion stirred the hornet’s nest during his address to the Indian diaspora in Herndon city in Virginia State of the US. He painted a doomsday image of India and cast aspersions on the religious freedom, enjoyed by the Sikh community, in the country.
First of all, you have to understand what the fight is about. 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 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 Gurdwara? That’s what the fight is about and not just for him (but) for all religions,” Rahul Gandhi had claimed.
Comments of Rahul Gandhi used to further Khalistani propaganda
The Gandhi dynast thus effectively played into the hands of the Khalistanis, who are always on the prowl to demonise India as an unsafe place for the Sikh community.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the founder of the banned terror outfit ‘Sikhs for Justice (SFJ)’, claimed that the statement made by Rahul Gandhi was “firmly grounded in the factual history of what Sikhs have been facing under successive regimes in India since 1947 and also corroborates SFJ’s stance on the justification for Punjab Independence Referendum to establish Sikh homeland Khalistan.”
In his official statement, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said, “While addressing the gathering in Washington DC where many pro-Khalistan Sikhs were in attendance, Rahul Gandhi justified SFJ’s global Khalistan Referendum campaign when he stated: ‘Fight in India is whether a Sikh will be allowed to wear turban and kada, go to gurudwara’.
“Rahul’s statement on ‘existential threat to Sikhs in India’ is not only bold and pioneering but is also firmly grounded in the factual history of what Sikhs have been facing under successive regimes in India since 1947 and also corroborates SFJ’s stance on the justification for Punjab Independence Referendum to establish Sikh homeland Khalistan,” he added.
