I wasn't there during many mistakes of Congress, but happy to take responsibility: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi, May 4 (PTI): Responding to a question on the 1984 riots and the Congress' relationship with the Sikh community, Rahul Gandhi has said a lot of the "mistakes" the party committed happened when he was not there but added that he was "more than happy" to take responsibility for everything wrong it did in its history.
Gandhi pointed out that he has publicly stated that what happened in the 80s was "wrong".
The remarks by Gandhi were made on April 21 during an interactive session at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University in the US. The video of the interaction was uploaded on the YouTube channel of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs on Saturday.
A Sikh student asked a question as to what attempts he was making to reconcile with the Sikh community and referred to the 1984 Sikh riots in his lengthy poser.
The student also referred to Gandhi's remark during an earlier visit to the US in which he had said the battle he was fighting was about whether Sikhs would be allowed to wear a turban in India or not.
In his reply, Gandhi said, "I don't think that anything scares the Sikhs. The statement I made was, do we want an India where people are uncomfortable to express their religion?"
"As far as the mistakes of the Congress party are concerned, a lot of those mistakes happened when I was not there, but I am more than happy to take responsibility for everything that the Congress party has ever done wrong in its history."
"I have publicly stated that what happened in the 80s was wrong, I have been to the Golden Temple multiple times, I have an extremely good relationship with the Sikh community in India and a loving relationship with them," the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha said.
Tagging that segment of the interaction, BJP IT Department head Amit Malviya said on Saturday, "'You haven't reconciled with the Sikhs', a young man tells Rahul Gandhi to his face, reminding him of the unfounded fearmongering he engaged in during his last visit to the US."
"It is quite unprecedented that Rahul Gandhi is now being ridiculed not just in India, but around the world," Malviya said.
The BJP also attacked Gandhi for calling Lord Ram "a mythological figure" at the same interaction.
During the interaction, Gandhi had said, "All great political thinkers, social reformers and you go back 3,000 years -- Buddha, Guru Nanak, Basava in Karnataka, Narayana Guru in Kerala, Phule, Gandhi, Ambedkar, and you see one stream. None of these are bigots."
"None of these people were saying - 'we want to kill people, we want to isolate people, we want to crush people, we believe that things should be done in one particular way'. All these people, the voices of whom are in our Constitution, are essentially saying the same thing, that carry everybody along (and emphasising on) truth and nonviolence," he had said.
"This, to me, is the bedrock of Indian tradition and Indian history. I don't know one person whom we consider great in India who wasn't of this type," Gandhi had said.
He went on to add, "All our mythological figures, Lord Ram was of that kind, where he was forgiving, he was compassionate. So, I don't consider what the BJP says to be the Hindu idea at all. I consider the Hindu idea to be much more pluralistic, much more embracing, much more affectionate, much more tolerant and open."
There are many people in every state and community who stood for those ideas, lived for those ideas and died for those ideas, he had said at the interaction in the US.
"And Gandhiji is one of those people, probably the best in modern times but there are many of them. To me, hatred and anger against people come from fear. If you are not scared, you don't hate anybody," he said. Further, Gandhi also slammed the BJP and called it a "fringe group".
"I don't view the BJP conception as a Hindu conception. In terms of thinking, they are a fringe group, they are not mainstream. Now that they have captured political power, they have got a huge amount of wealth and they have got power, but they don't represent the large majority of Indian thinkers by any means," Gandhi had said.
Reacting to Gandhi's remarks, Malviya said on Sunday, "Bhagwan Ram is not a mythological figure, he embodies the values, culture, and spiritual essence of Bharat. He represents 'maryada', sacrifice, and righteous leadership, which have shaped our civilisation for thousands of years. He is the soul of Bharat and central to who we are as people."
"Rahul Gandhi and the Congress should stop ridiculing the beliefs of billions of Hindus around the world. People like him and political parties will come and go, but Bhagwan Ram will forever remain a timeless symbol of dharma and an inspiration for generations to come," Malviya said.
At the April 21 interaction, Gandhi also spoke about his demand for a caste census and asserted that he had got a massive "pushback" over the issue. A couple of days later, on April 30, the Centre announced that caste enumeration will be part of the next population census.
"When I push for the caste census, I get massive push back which says this is divisive... if we are talking about building a country, if we are talking about India becoming a powerful country and a rich country, we simply can not tell the bulk of the population that you cannot participate," he had said in the US.
"So to me, caste census is putting the truth on the table. Many people in India just don't want to hear the truth."
The people of India need to know exactly the amount of discrimination that is taking place, he had said.
"I don't believe that you should simply exclude the energy and the attention of the 90 per cent of your population. I don't understand how a country grows and prospers with that strategy," Gandhi had said.
He described caste census as a very powerful weapon, "the first step that will transform the way we think about development and the way we think about politics in India."
"If you look at the work that the Telangana government and Karnataka government are doing, particularly the caste census, those are revolutionary ideas. We feel that is a very very powerful instrument for empowering lower castes," he had said.
After the government's announcement on the matter last week, Rahul Gandhi told reporters that he welcomes the government's "sudden" decision to include caste enumeration in the next census after "11 years of opposing it" but said it should give a timeline for its implementation.
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'Go back to your own country': Indian-origin taxi driver attacked in Dublin
London, Aug 5 (PTI): An Indian-origin taxi driver based in Ireland for over 23 years has become the latest to be targeted in an unprovoked attack in the capital Dublin, with local police (Gardai) launching an investigation into the violent assault.
Lakhvir Singh, in his 40s, told local media that he picked up two young men in their 20s on Friday night and dropped them at Poppintree, in the Ballymun suburb of Dublin.
Upon arriving at the destination, the men are said to have opened the vehicle door and struck him twice on the head with a bottle. As the suspects fled, they reportedly shouted: "Go back to your own country".
"In 10 years I've never seen anything like this happen," Singh told ‘Dublin Live’.
"I'm really scared now and I'm off the road at the moment. It will be very hard to go back. My children are really scared," he said.
A Dublin police spokesperson said Singh was taken to the city's Beaumont Hospital with injuries determined as not life-threatening.
"Gardaí are investigating an assault reported to have occurred in Poppintree, Ballymun, Dublin 11 at approximately 11:45 pm on Friday, 1st August 2025. A man, aged in his 40s, was brought to Beaumont Hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injury. Investigations are ongoing," the spokesperson said.
The incident followed an Indian Embassy advisory, also issued on Friday, expressing safety concerns following recent attacks in and around the capital Dublin and urging Indian citizens to take safety precautions.
"There has been an increase in the instances of physical attacks reported against Indian citizens in Ireland recently,” states the advisory.
“The embassy is in touch with the authorities concerned in Ireland in this regard. At the same time, all Indian citizens in Ireland are advised to take reasonable precautions for their personal security and avoid deserted areas, especially at odd hours," the statement reads, adding emergency embassy contact details as 0899423734 and cons.dublin@mea.gov.in.
It came in the wake of a brutal attack on a 40-year-old Indian man at Parkhill Road in the Tallaght suburb of Dublin on July 19, described as “mindless, racist violence” by locals.
The Gardai had opened an investigation into the case and Indian Ambassador to Ireland Akhilesh Mishra was among those who took to social media to express shock over the attack.
“Regarding the recent incident of physical attack on an Indian national that happened in Tallaght, Dublin, the embassy is in touch with the victim and his family. All the requisite assistance is being offered. The embassy is also in touch with the relevant Irish authorities in this regard,” the embassy said in a social media post days after the incident.
A Stand Against Racism protest was also held by the local community in condemnation of what was described as a "vicious racist attack" and to express solidarity with migrants.
Last week, Dr Santosh Yadav took to LinkedIn to post details of a “brutal, unprovoked racist attack”.
The entrepreneur and AI expert stressed that it was not an isolated incident and called for “concrete measures” from the governments of Ireland and India to ensure Indians feel safe to walk the streets of Dublin.
His post revealed that a group of six teenagers attacked him from behind as he walked to his apartment in Dublin.
“This is not an isolated incident. Racist attacks on Indian men and other minorities are surging across Dublin — on buses, in housing estates, and on public streets. Yet, the government is silent. There is no action being taken against these perpetrators. They run free and are emboldened to attack again,” reads Yadav's post.
Fine Gael party Councillor for Tallaght South, Baby Pereppadan, was among those who expressed concern following last month’s attack.
“People need to understand that many Indian people moving to Ireland are here on work permits, to study and work in the healthcare sector or in IT and so on, providing critical skills,” he said.
Another violent anti-Indian attack in Ireland
— Journalist V (@OnTheNewsBeat) August 5, 2025
Taxi driver Lakhvir Singh was attacked with glass bottles while doing his job pic.twitter.com/mtkwhLWISx
