Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday faced what his rivals interpreted as an awkward moment during an interaction with students in the US over the meaning of the I.N.D.I.A., a coalition of opposition parties that came together to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
During an interaction event at US’ Georgetown University, a student referred the opposition bloc as “INDI Alliance”, prompting a correction by the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha who said that it is “INDIA Alliance”.
“It’s not INDI alliance. That’s a BJP framing, it’s INDIA alliance,” Gandhi said.
Elaborating further, the former Congress chief said the “INDI Alliance” word is used by the BJP and added that the whole idea of the INDIA Bloc was to tell the people during Lok Sabha elections that India is being attacked.
The student then asked Gandhi, “What’s the last word stand for?”. He replied, “Alliance.” The student further asked, “Wouldn’t it redundant to say INDIA alliance?”
Then Gandhi said, “No. it’s not. The whole idea of the alliance was to put across to the people that India is being attacked. And it was very successfully. Generally people in India say INDIA alliance but BJP people say INDI alliance.”
Over two dozen parties came together under the banner of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or INDIA bloc to fight the Lok Sabha elections and reduced BJP’s strengthen to 240 seats from over 300 seats in 2019.
The same student also mentioned that Congress could not agree on seats sharing with alliance partners with Trinamool Congress during the elections and it entered into an agreement with “Hinduvta-based” Shiv Sena (UBT).
When asked if Congress would be able to run a government with such divided coalition as they cannot seem to agree on anything other than removing Narendra Modi from power, Gandhi said,
“We agree on a lot. We agree that the constitution of India should be defended. Most of us agree on the idea of caste census… For you to say we don’t agree, I think is inaccurate. The second thing is all coalitions are negotiations. Certain amount of too and fro will always take place. This is natural and there is nothing wrong in it. We have successfully run governments using coalition. We are pretty confident that we can do it again.”
BJP Takes Dig At Rahul Gandhi
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala took a dig Rahul Gandhi while sharing the video.
Owned & how!Student: Indi alliance – does it agree on anything except of removal of PM Modi…
Rahul : incoherent stuff.. incoherent stuff.. by the way it is I.N.D.I.A alliance not INDI.. that’s a BJP framing..
Student: What does A stand for?
Rahul: Alliance
Student:… pic.twitter.com/mkmihnUnAy
— Shehzad Jai Hind (Modi Ka Parivar) (@Shehzad_Ind) September 10, 2024
BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya said it took a student on foreign soil to tutor “third-time fail” Rahul Gandhi that it is I.N.D.I Alliance and not I.N.D.I.A Alliance.
It took a student on foreign soil to tutor Third Time Fail Rahul Gandhi that it is I.N.D.I Alliance and not I.N.D.I.A Alliance. The video should be watched by other darbari journalists too, who insist on calling it I.N.D.I.A Alliance/Block and I don’t mean Rajdeep Sardesai alone. pic.twitter.com/BHnBVYdnn1— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) September 10, 2024
The BJP came down heavily on Rahul Gandhi over his remarks in the US about the Sikh community, saying the Congress leader is trying to create a “dangerous narrative” by speaking on “sensitive issues” abroad.
Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri told a press conference at the BJP headquarters here that Gandhi’s remarks were “sinister” in nature as he tried to spread falsehood among the members of the Sikh community living abroad to “eke out a living” and do not have much connection with India.
“I condemn in the strongest terms the statement he has made about Sikhs not being able to wear turbans and kadas,” the BJP leader from the Sikh community said.
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