Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday made it clear that his arms were open to hug his cousin — BJP MP Varun Gandhi, but the party doors were virtually closed for him. Putting to rest all speculations around Varun Gandhi’s likely entry in the Congress party and joining his historic Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday categorically said that they had “different” ideologies.
Rahul Gandhi went on to add that he could not accept the ideology adopted by his cousin. “I can meet him, hug him but I can’t accept that ideology,” he said, making a rare statement on his first cousin Varun Gandhi, while addressing the media at Hoshiarpur.
“I can never go to RSS office, you have to behead me before (making me do) that. My family has an ideology, a thought system…He (Varun Gandhi) at some point, maybe even today, accepted that ideology and made it his own. I can never accept that thing…I can definitely meet him, hug him, but cannot accept that ideology. Impossible,” said Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress leader also went on to refer to an incident where Varun Gandhi appreciated the work being done by the RSS — the ideological fountainhead of the ruling BJP.
“Years ago, Feroze told me that RSS is doing great work in the country. I asked him to read and understand our family's history. Had you understood our family's ideology, you would have never said that,” said Rahul Gandhi, while maintaining, “But there's no hatred”.
Rahul Gandhi also stated that anyone who believes in RSS ideology will never be accepted into the grand old party.
Notably, BJP MP from Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh Varun Gandhi has been criticizing several policy decisions of the Narendra Modi Government. Only recently, he spoke against “Hindu-Muslim politics” — a video of which was also widely circulated on social media, showing Varun Gandhi saying that he was neither against Congress nor Pandit Nehru.
“The politics of our country should be to unite the country, not the politics of creating civil war. We should not do politics that suppress people, rather we should do politics that uplifts people,” he had said.
SECURITY BREACH
Notwithstanding the three-layer security cover provided to the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in Punjab, his protection ring was allegedly breached twice on Tuesday within a gap of over 30 minutes. However, the Congress’ former national president denied the same describing it as “enthusiasm” among the people for the historic yatra.
“Why are you calling it a lapse…Someone came to hug me. It’s not a lapse…sometimes people are over-excited…I wouldn’t call it a security lapse,” said Rahul while addressing the media during its halt at Ghaunspur village after completing the morning leg.
“There is a lot of enthusiasm about this yatra and it happens…Security people checked him and he was just over-excited,” he added.
Also denying any security breach at the yatra, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said that Rahul Gandhi had invited them to meet him.
Notably, two incidents of alleged security breach were reported on Tuesday, within a time period of less than 40 minutes, after the yatra resumed from Tanda in Hoshiarpur district.
In the first incident, a video of which also went viral, a person was seen running towards Rahul Gandhi and hugging him before being pushed back immediately by Warring and also his security. The incident reportedly took place at around 8:05 am on Jalandhar-Pathankot road.
In the second incident, which took place at around 8.40 am, a young man wearing kesari headgear went ahead and reached close to Rahul when the congress leader was trying to cross the road during yatra’s halt for tea break at a Dhaba in Bassi village in Hoshiarpur. The youth was later taken into custody.
Regarding the first incident, Inspector General of Police GS Dhillon said that Rahul Gandhi had himself called the man and there was no security breach.
PATHANKOT RALLY ON JAN 19
Rahul Gandhi will wrap up the Punjab leg of his historic yatra with a rally at Pathankot on January 19, before entering Jammu and Kashmir. The Punjab leg of the foot march began on Wednesday from Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib and is passing through Mandi Gobindgarh, Khanna, Sahnewal, Ludhiana, Goraya, Phagwara, Jalandhar, Dasyua, and Mukerian. The march began on September 7 from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and will conclude in Srinagar on January 30. So far, the Yatra has covered Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.