- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
In a surprising statement, Indian political leader Rahul Gandhi has said he had “killed Rahul Gandhi” and was not bothered about his image, emphasising on the point that his Indian National Congress’s ongoing ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ (Unite India March) should not be about him.
Speaking to journalists in the northern state of Haryana on Sunday (8), the 52-year-old Gandhi said, “Rahul Gandhi is in your mind. I have killed him. He is not there. Not in my mind at all. He’s gone. Gone.”
Congress alleges that BJP spends billions to project Rahul Gandhi as a clown.
Meanwhile Rahul Gandhi himself : pic.twitter.com/I8aeXYSzjD
— Rishi Bagree (@rishibagree) January 9, 2023
He said this when a journalist asked him how the months-long yatra changed his image.
“The person you are looking at is not Rahul Gandhi. You can see him. You don’t understand it…Read Hindu scriptures. Read about Shiv-ji (Lord Shiva), you will understand. Don’t be shocked. Rahul Gandhi is in your head, not mine. He is in the BJP’s head, not mine,” the leader, who has been walking on the roads of the country starting from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu since September last year, said.
Addressing the journalist who had asked him the question, Gandhi, sporting a big black-and-white beard, counter asked, “Why are you looking so shocked? I have nothing to do with image, I have no interest in image. You can assign me whatever image you want – good or bad.”
In November, the opposition leader had made similar comments while suggesting that the yatra is not about him at all.
“I let go of Rahul Gandhi years ago. Rahul Gandhi is on your mind, not mine. Understand. Try and understand. (on hearing applause) See, someone is clapping. Do you understand? One person has understood. This is the philosophy of your country. Understand it, it will be good for you,” he said.
On that occasion, a journalist had asked him to describe what perspective “Rahul Gandhi” was gaining from the people of India during the yatra.
The ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is seen as the Congress’s efforts towards reviving its mass base after it faced a series of electoral debacles against prime minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, which has won two consecutive general elections in 2014 and 2019 besides a number of state polls.
The party has said the purpose of the yatra is not to project Gandhi as a prime ministerial candidate.
