Senior Congress leader made controversial remarks during his speech at an event held today, a video of which has gone viral on the internet. In the video, Gandhi says that he would have stabbed a person if his relatives were subjected to the kind of atrocities that Dalits allegedly faced, adding that he would have killed his tormentor before committing suicide.
The video was shot today, as Rahul Gandhi was addressing a book launch event at Delhi’s Jawahar Auditorium. He was speaking at the launch of “The Dalit Truth: The Battles For Realizing Ambedkar’s Vision.”
The stabbing remark refers to an incident to which Rahul Gandhi alluded in his speech. He was referring to the Una incident in Gujrat, in which several Dalit youngsters were reportedly beaten up by Gau Rakshaks. He told a story about visiting the victims’ families and learning that several other Dalit youngsters tried suicide in protest of the assault.
Rahul described how he went to meet the youngsters who committed suicide in order to know what was in their minds when they took this step. It is in this context that Rahul Gandhi said that he would have stabbed the person before committing suicide. Here is the full-length video of his speech in Jawahar Auditorium, New Delhi, uploaded on his official YouTube channel.
Rahul Gandhi claimed in a conversation with one of the survivors that if he were in such a position and his sister was assaulted by a gang of people, he would first murder them by stabbing them and then kill himself. “It came to my mind that if my sister was assaulted and beaten like a dog, I would’ve stabbed the perpetrators before committing suicide,” he added.
Rahul Gandhi went on to add that he advised the survivor why he had not killed the person who assaulted his brother, given he knew the identity of the perpetrator and had access to a knife. He claimed that in response to his question, the boy replied, “I cannot kill him because if I kill him, I’ll be reborn as a Dalit.”
The statements made by Rahul Gandhi in this regard are gaining rounds on the internet with people condemning his remarks. Several people condemned his statement as it is promoting violence in a democracy and it shows his irresponsible nature where he thought of killing a person rather than choosing the path of law and justice.