On eve of Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary, Rahul Gandhi sheds light on Golden Temple visit, attacks BJP and RSS
The community is the vehicle to challenge the idea of self, ego, hatred, and violence, said Rahul Gandhi in the seven-minute video.
4 min read
Rahul Gandhi visited Golden Temple in the first week of October (Facebook/Rahul Gandhi) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi released a video Monday, on the eve of the death anniversary of his grandmother and former prime minister, Indira Gandhi, to explain the purpose of his recent visit to Golden Temple in Amritsar. He also attacked the BJP and the RSS and said they may have power with them but he has truth with him.
Rahul Gandhi visited Golden Temple in the first week of October and spent more than two days in and around the sacred Sikh shrine. He participated in ‘seva’ (volunteer service) at the shrine along with devotees during his visit.
In the video released on his YouTube channel, Rahul Gandhi said, “While I was doing the seva, it naturally raised questions about my ego. During seva, the community is helping you. The community is conveying three things. First, you have to work; you can’t be a parasite in society. The second idea is to observe what you are doing and its effect on others. The third idea is that whatever you do, some benefit should go to other people. The community is the vehicle to challenge the idea of self, ego, hatred, and violence.”
“To me, the most important thing is that the entire concept is built on affection and respect for others, not only from your religion but also from other religions,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi said, “I have been to the Golden Temple before, but back then, I just paid obeisance and sat there. I didn’t do seva. Now, when I did seva, it completely transformed the experience for me.”
“When you look at Indian society today, you see the hatred being spread in society. We have examples in history, and (founder of Sikhism) Guru Nanak is one of them, who should guide us on the path we should be working on. It’s unfortunate that we don’t see the real treasure this land has. We are so busy impressing other people and making money that we forget the actual treasure that India brings to the world,” he said.
Rahul Gandhi said, “We are going through a phase where wisdom is lacking. Wisdom is not about how intelligent, smart, or clever you are. Wisdom is about how effective you are in pursuing the truth. Guru Nanak, Mahatma Gandhi, and Buddha were wise. They were not wealthy or had force. Guru Nanak had no force, but he had a huge amount of power because he was closer to the truth.”
Attacking the RSS and the BJP, he said in the around seven-minute-long video, “My view is that force is always a lie, and power is always the truth. The United States is called a superpower. It is not a superpower; it is a super force. Gandhi is a superpower. Guru Nanak is a superpower. Force is always destructive, and it is always used with fear, attachment, anger, and hatred. I don’t have force compared to the BJP and RSS. They have the government of India and institutions like the CBI and ED. The only thing I have, and I cannot tell you how beautiful it is, is the truth. They (BJP, RSS) can keep going. Their force does nothing to the truth. That’s what I would like young Indian people to understand.”
Though he had not made any statement about this visit thus far, it was seen as another of his attempts to engage with traumas of the past. In 1984, then prime minister Indira Gandhi sent the Army to Golden Temple to flush out militants led by Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. That led to her assassination by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984 and the subsequent anti-Sikh riots.
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