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Rahul Gandhi was responding to a question of a Sikh man during Q&A session at Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University in the US two weeks ago.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was answering a question at US university. (X)
Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has admitted Congress party’s “mistakes” in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots saying that he was not present when the riots took place but added that he was happy to take responsibility for “everything the Congress party has ever done wrong in its history”.
The Congress leader was responding to a question of a Sikh man during Q&A session at Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University in the US two weeks ago.
The man confronted Gandhi over his earlier statement where he spoke about India under the BJP and questioned whether Sikhs would be allowed to wear the kada or tie their turbans under BJP rule.
Read More: Rahul Gandhi Calls Lord Ram ‘Mythological’, BJP Hits Back With ‘Anti-Hindu’ Jibe
“You create a fear among Sikhs about what BJP would look like, you talked about how politics should be fearless, we don’t just want to wear kadas, we don’t just want to tie turbans, we want freedom of expression, which has not been allowed under the Congress Party in the past,” he told the Lok Sabha LoP.
A brave Sikh man confronted Rahul Gandhi:Why spread fear that Sikhs won’t be allowed to wear Turban & Kada under BJP?
Congress, which attacked Sikh freedom of speech and shielded 1984 riot accused like Sajjan Kumar, can’t lecture us on rights. pic.twitter.com/kEuVnseUbp
— Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates) May 3, 2025
He further referred to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who has been recently sentenced to life imprisonment in a case related to killing the father-son duo in the Saraswati Vihar area during the riots, and questioned why the party continues to shield such leaders.
“Your party lacks the maturity to accept the mistakes it has made such as Sajjan Kumar just now being tried and there are many more like Sajjan Kumar currently sitting in the Congress party.”
In response, the senior party leader said that he had questioned he state of religious freedom in India in the BJP regime.
“The statement I made was that do we want an India where people are uncomfortable to express their religion? As far as mistakes of Congress Party are concerned, a lot of those happened when I was not there, but I am more than happy to take responsibility for everything the Congress party has ever done wrong in its history,” he said.
“I have publicly stated that what happened in the 80s was wrong, I have been to the Golden Temple multiple times, I have extremely good relationships with the Sikh community in India,” Gandhi added.
A video of interaction has also went viral on the social media platforms. The session, moderated by Ashutosh Varshney, Director of the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia at Brown University, was posted by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs on Saturday.
BJP Reacts
BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya reacted to the conversation and said that the Sikh man had reminded Gandhi of the “unfounded fear-mongering” he engaged in during his last visit to the US. “It is quite unprecedented that Rahul Gandhi is now being ridiculed not just in India, but around the world,” he said.
Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said, “Rahul Gandhi, who goes abroad and insults India and Sikhs, when it came to facing the truth, backed off citing service at Darbar Sahib. It wasn’t just a video… This was the Sikh community’s expression of pain, anger and cry for justice. What Rahul Gandhi said was not an apology but a political pretense. His silence, his evasion and his protection of the culprits… this is the real face of the Gandhi family.”
1984 का सिख नरसंहार… एक ऐसा काला अध्याय जिसे कोई सिख कभी भूल नहीं सकता।कांग्रेस और गांधी परिवार की शह पर 8000 से ज़्यादा सिखों को दिल्ली की सड़कों पर ज़िंदा जला दिया गया। गुरु घरों में बेअदबी हुई, माताओं की गोद उजड़ गई और आज राहुल गांधी उस दर्द पर बस ये कहते हैं.. “जो हुआ,… pic.twitter.com/jLEIJgCUpC— Manjinder Singh Sirsa (@mssirsa) May 4, 2025
Party’s national spokesperson RP Singh said that Rahul Gandhi should immediately expel Jagdish Tytler and Kamal Nath from the Congress party if he is genuinely willing to take responsibility for the massacare.
If @RahulGandhi is genuinely willing to take responsibility for the 1984 Sikh massacre, the first step should be to immediately expel Jagdish Tytler and Kamal Nath from the Congress party, as both stand accused of involvement in the horrific killings of innocent Sikhs.— RP Singh National Spokesperson BJP (@rpsinghkhalsa) May 4, 2025
Rahul Gandhi’s 2024 Remark
Earlier in September 2024, the Congress leader had courted a massive row with his remark on the state of religious freedom in India, citing the example of Sikhs, during an event in the US.
Addressing the members of the Indian diaspora in Virginia, Gandhi had said that the fight in India is about whether a person, as a Sikh, is going to be allowed to wear a turban in India and would be able to visit a Gurdwara.
1984 Anti-Sikh Riots
In the 1980s, the Indira Gandhi government suppressed a separatist movement in Punjab led by radical preacher Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. The preacher, who was hiding inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar, was killed when the Indian Army stormed the premises, one of the holiest sites for Sikhism.
The 1984 anti-Sikh riots erupted following the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards. Thousands of Sikhs were killed, with Delhi being the most affected, followed by Kanpur.
In 2013, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had tendered an apology in the Parliament for the killings of over 4,000 Sikhs in 1984. Soon, then party chief Sonia Gandhi, too, had expressed regrets over the riots, which was followed by Rahul Gandhi himself, who said he shared their sentiments.
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