Leader of Opposition and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has come under fire from Union Minister and BJP leader Hardeep Puri for his remarks while in the United States.
These remarks included disparaging remarks about the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and characterising the political conflict with the BJP as an intellectual disagreement on issues such as "Is a Sikh allowed to wear a turban (or) kada?"
In a long-winded rant, Puri charged that Gandhi was holding the role of Leader of the Opposition to only criticise the government while overseas and propagating a "dangerous narrative" among the diaspora in the US.
He said, "One needs to figure out why the Leader of Opposition Mr Rahul Gandhi makes outlandish & defamatory statements about India on foreign soil. But what he has now said about Sikhs not being able to wear Kada and Turban border on being purely delusional and absurd. "
He also criticised how Rahul Gandhi earlier had made a remark that there is a larger economy, referring to China, where there's no unemployment, while picking on him on his comments on RSS. He said his remarks had worsened the situation as he didn't go to the US as any other common Indian citizen but as the Leader of the Opposition.
Attacking Gandhi for his comment, "whether a Sikh will be allowed to wear his turban or go to the gurudwara in India," Puri said, "Truth is that Sikhs have never been safer anywhere in the world than they are in India today."
Criticising the Gandhi family for the attacks on Sikhs in 1984, he further said, "If there ever was any fear or anxiety in their minds about being identified as Sikhs due to their Kada, Kirpan or Turban, it was only during the mindless one-sided violence and pogrom against members of the Sikh Sangat in 1984."