Can meet him, hug him, but can never accept his ideology: Rahul on cousin Varun Gandhi
Hoshiarpur (Punjab), Jan 17: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said he can meet and hug his cousin and BJP MP Varun Gandhi but cannot accept his ideology.
"My ideology does not match his ideology. I can never go to an RSS office. You can slit my throat, but I will not go. My family has an ideology, it has a thought system," Gandhi said at a press conference on the sidelines of his Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir Bharat Jodo Yatra.
"At one time, Varun adopted that ideology, maybe still does, so I cannot accept that," Gandhi added.
He was responding to questions on the possibility that he might reach out to his cousin, the son of Sanjay and Maneka Gandhi.
Varun Gandhi has in the past criticised the BJP government's handling of issues like economy and agriculture -- and triggering speculation that he might quit the saffron party.
The Congress leader said if Varun Gandhi walks into the yatra he might face a problem, implying that the BJP may not approve of it.
"I can meet him with love, hug him, but I cannot accept that ideology. That is impossible," Gandhi said.
Answering a related question, he said Varun Gandhi once told him that the RSS was doing good work.
The Congress leader recalled that he then told his cousin that if had read about and understood what his family stood for, he wouldn't have said such a thing.
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Rahul Gandhi calls Great Nicobar Island project a ‘major threat’ to environment, tribal heritage
Sri Vijaypuram (Port Blair)/ Nicobar: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the Centre’s development initiative in Great Nicobar Island on Wednesday, On his maiden visit to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Gandhi alleged that the project will lad to large-scale environmental degradation and displacement of local communities.
The Rae Bareli MP, in a post on X after visiting the island, said the project would lead to extensive deforestation and adversely impact indigenous populations.
“So I will say it plainly, and I will keep saying it: what is being done in Great Nicobar is one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against this country’s natural and tribal heritage in our lifetime,” Gandhi added.
“The government calls what it is doing here a ‘Project’. What I have seen is not a project. It is millions of trees marked for the axe… It is communities that have been ignored while their homes have been snatched away,” Gandhi said.
Describing the initiative as “destruction dressed in development’s language”, he termed it one of the “biggest scams” against the country’s natural and tribal heritage and called for it to be stopped.
Gandhi also claimed that nearly 160 square kilometres of rainforest could be affected, raising concerns over ecological damage.
