In a highly controversial statement, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said that the fight in India was not about politics but about religious freedom and regional identities.
While interacting with the members of the Indian community in Virginia, Rahul Gandhi asked a person his name and said that the fight was about whether he, as a Sikh, was going to be allowed to wear a turban in India and be able to visit a Gurdwara or a Tamilian allowed to speak in his language.
He said that the fight is not about politics.
"First of all, you have to understand what the fight is about. The fight is not about politics. It is superficial. What is your name? ... brother ...with the turban... Balinder Singh ...The fight is about whether ... he as a Sikh is going to be allowed to wear his turban in India... or he 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, for all religions."
"Fight is also about ...I can see here in the crowd, people from Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Haryana, Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala. When I say Kerala, ...I have been a Member of Parliament for Kerala.. when I say Kerala..., Kerala is a simple word, and Punjab is a simple word, but these are not simple words. This is your history, your language, your tradition. Your entire imagination is in these words," the Congress leader said.
Rahul Gandhi attacked the RSS saying it does not believe in diversity.
"...And what the RSS is basically saying is that certain states are inferior to other states, certain languages are inferior to other languages, certain religions are inferior to religions, and certain communities are inferior to other communities... that is what the fight is all about .. we are of the opinion that whether you are from Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh.. all of you have your history, tradition, language.. and every one of them is important. What would you do if someone told you that you could not speak Tamil.. how would you feel...how would you react ... that is the ideology of the RSS is ... that Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, and Manipuri ... are inferior languages... That is what the fight is about...," he said.
Gandhi further said, "Are we going to have an India where people are allowed to believe what they want to believe ...people are allowed to respect what they want, say what they want to say, listen to what they want to listen ...or we have India where only a few can decide... problem is they don't understand what India is ..what India's history is ..."
(With inputs from IANS)
