“BJP has gone mad…” Harish Rawat slams Ganesh Joshi

Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and Congress politician Harish Rawat criticised Bharatiya Janata Party minister Ganesh Joshi on Wednesday for his statements on the deaths of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, demanding an apology from the latter.

“BJP has gone mad, as no one has the right to insult martyrdom, to criticize the sacrifice. BJP should apologize for this statement made by their minister,” Rawat said while talking to ANI here on Wednesday. Uttarakhand Minister Ganesh Joshi on Tuesday courted a political controversy calling the killings of former Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi “accidents, not martyrdom”.

The assassinations of previous Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were not “martyrdom but accidents” Joshi said in an interview with ANI. The Minister remarked that there is a “difference between accident and martyrdom” and what happened with the two former prime ministers is better labelled a “accident”.

“If we look at history, there is a difference between losing a life in the line of duty and an accident. Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were big leaders and former PMs. Indira Gandhi was shot dead by a security guard while Rajiv Gandhi was killed by LTTE, so it’s an accident,” Joshi said.

Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984, by her two Sikh bodyguards in retaliation for a military operation to clear out extremists from the Golden Temple in June of that year.
On May 21, 1991, while on an election campaign, her son Rajiv Gandhi was slain by Tamil Tiger militants in Sriperambudur.

“Yes, they were tall leaders, the Prime Ministers, but they met with accidents. Indira Gandhi was killed by her bodyguards. That was not martyrdom but an accident. I stand by my statement that there is a difference between martyrdom and accident,” Joshi added.

The remarks by the Uttarakhand minister came after senior Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi claimed during the concluding ceremony of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and the RSS would not understand the agony.

“Those who do violence like PM Modi, Amit Shah, Ajit Doval, and RSS, cannot understand pain, but we can. We should stand against the ideology which tries to demolish the base of India,” he said.