During his speech at a rally in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday (September 25), Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi accidentally misspoke while the second phase of assembly elections is being conducted. Instead of saying “Kashmiri Pandits”, he mistakenly referred to them as “refugees from PoK” and immediately rectified his error.
Gandhi stated that the commitment made by ex-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the refugees from PoK will be honored. He later apologized and amended it to the “pledge made to Kashmiri Pandits”. The commitments made by Manmohan Singh ji will be honored for the refugees who arrived from PoK. Apologies… He assured at the public gathering that commitments to Kashmiri Pandits would be honored.
However, this did not escape notice and provided ample ammunition for the ruling BJP. Amit Malviya, a senior party leader, took a swipe at Gandhi by claiming that Sam Pitroda, a Congress leader based overseas, is trying to convince everyone that he is no longer called “Pappu”. He stated that the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha was unable to differentiate PoK refugees from Kashmiri Pandits.
Sam Pitroda now claims he is no longer known as Pappu, but according to him, the Leader of Opposition is unable to differentiate between refugees from PoK and Kashmiri Pandits. The chaos in Kashmir can be attributed to Jawaharlal Nehru’s legacy. “He mentioned that to add to the mix, we also have Rahul Gandhi now,” he wrote in a post on X along with a video of the speech.
Vishnu Vardhan Reddy, a BJP leader from Andhra Pradesh, remarked that the truth will always surface no matter how much one tries to conceal it. He praised Rahul Gandhi for unintentionally stating the truth on social media.
In a different post, Reddy stated that Rahul Gandhi is arguing in Jammu that ‘the Indian government is considered foreign by the people of J&K, therefore it is unfair to them’. However, the Congress and their allies consistently support discussions with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue. Therefore, he sees the Indian government as foreign, while Pakistan is not.
Gandhi spoke at two gatherings in J&K – one in Jammu and the other in Sopore. He talked at length about granting statehood to the union territory in both public gatherings.
After 1947 in Indian history, numerous Union Territories were transformed into states. States were split – Telangana emerged from Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand was established from Bihar, Chhattisgarh was created from Madhya Pradesh. However, a state was converted into a Union Territory for the first time post independence. This action was taken towards Jammu and Kashmir. You are being treated unfairly. “At the rally in Jammu, he mentioned that your democratic rights have been taken from you.”
He stated that at present, J&K is not controlled by the residents of J&K, but rather by people from different states. We had expected that you would regain statehood prior to the elections. That would have been the right approach…However, it’s fine if they prioritize holding elections. “We desire your democratic freedoms, the statehood of J&K has been restored to you.”
In Sopore, he reiterated the need for J&K to regain its statehood, which will occur when the INDIA bloc government comes into power. He criticized the BJP for promoting a message of hatred across the nation.
We desired for statehood to be reinstated prior to the elections. All the residents of Jammu and Kashmir desired for the elections to occur only following the reinstatement of the state’s autonomy. The first step is election; it did not occur. However, following this, the status of Jammu and Kashmir must be reinstated. The coalition of INDIA will put pressure on PM Modi in Parliament for this. He added that your statehood will be restored once the INDIA alliance takes power at the Centre if they do not act on it.