NEW DELHI: Taking strong exception to Rahul Gandhi‘s remarks on Sikhs in India, several BJP functionaries belonging to the community said Rahul was trying to poison Sikhs and defame India as they recalled the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi following Indira Gandhi’s assassination.
“Rahul ji, the only time when Sikhs felt scared and insecure, in fact, an existential threat, was in 1984, when at the instigation of Congress functionaries, rioters put tyres around the necks of Sikhs wearing turbans and burnt them alive,” petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.
Addressing a press conference, he also recalled the controversial “earth is bound to shake when a big tree falls” remark former PM Rajiv Gandhi had made in the context of killings of thousands of Sikhs.
BJP attacked Rahul over his statement that Congress would “scrap reservation at the right moment”, saying it was a “reflection of his prejudice” against quotas.
Puri said, “In 1984, a pogrom was carried out against Sikhs who would be dragged out of their homes to be lynched and burnt alive.”
BJP secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa said he unequivocally condemned Rahul’s “derogatory and divisive” remarks on foreign soil. “In India, no Sikh has ever been stopped from wearing a turban or visiting a gurdwara,” he added.
On Rahul’s comment on reservations, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the “prejudice against reservation which Rahul Gandhi has in abundance got reflected in America”. He added that it was in Rahul’s legacy to oppose reservations. “Nehru, Rajeev, Indira were all opposed to reservations,” he said.
“Rahul ji, the only time when Sikhs felt scared and insecure, in fact, an existential threat, was in 1984, when at the instigation of Congress functionaries, rioters put tyres around the necks of Sikhs wearing turbans and burnt them alive,” petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.
Addressing a press conference, he also recalled the controversial “earth is bound to shake when a big tree falls” remark former PM Rajiv Gandhi had made in the context of killings of thousands of Sikhs.
BJP attacked Rahul over his statement that Congress would “scrap reservation at the right moment”, saying it was a “reflection of his prejudice” against quotas.
Puri said, “In 1984, a pogrom was carried out against Sikhs who would be dragged out of their homes to be lynched and burnt alive.”
BJP secretary Manjinder Singh Sirsa said he unequivocally condemned Rahul’s “derogatory and divisive” remarks on foreign soil. “In India, no Sikh has ever been stopped from wearing a turban or visiting a gurdwara,” he added.
On Rahul’s comment on reservations, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the “prejudice against reservation which Rahul Gandhi has in abundance got reflected in America”. He added that it was in Rahul’s legacy to oppose reservations. “Nehru, Rajeev, Indira were all opposed to reservations,” he said.
