In a dramatic escalation of political tensions, Congress workers in Nagpur were detained by police on Thursday during a protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The demonstration was sparked by controversial remarks made by BJP leader Tarvinder Singh Marwah concerning Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The protest unfolded outside the BJP office in Nagpur, where Congress supporters rallied against Marwah’s recent statement, which they claimed was an attack on Rahul Gandhi's credibility and character.
For the unversed, BJP functionary, Tarvinder Singh Marwah, publicly threatened Rahul Gandhi that he would meet the same fate as his grandmother, former prime minister Indira Gandhi and his father former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.Ex-PM Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her Sikh security guards on October 31, 1984 in retaliation to an army operation–called Operation Blue Star –to flush out militants holed up in the Sikh religious shrine Harmandir Sahib in Punjab’s Amritsar.
The same fate awaited ex-PM Rajiv Gandhi who was blown up to pieces on May 21, 1991 by a female suicide bomber of the Sri Lankan militant group Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Tamil Nadu’s Sriperumbudur. The threat to Rahul, who is visiting the US, was given on September 11 over his recent remarks on the practice of religion by the Sikhs in the country that triggered a war of words between the Congress and the BJP, which accused the Congress leader of making anti-India statements on foreign soil. Former Congress member of parliament Sandeep Dikshit charged the BJP with creating an atmosphere of hatred over the past 10 years and playing divisive politics.“It is the duty of the opposition to make people aware of the dangers to national politics. The BJP targeted Rahul Gandhi when he went to attend a marriage ceremony in the family of former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was enjoying the swing with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Pakistan pushes terrorism in India and China has forcibly taken over the borderland,” Dikshit told ETV Bharat.