'BJP leaders scared to walk in J-K': Rahul Gandhi dares Amit Shah to hit Srinagar's streets

SRINAGAR: A day after daring Union Home Minister Amit Shah to walk from Jammu to Srinagar's Lal Chowk, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday claimed that no BJP leader can take a walk on the streets of Kashmir not because the people would not allow them to do so, but because they are scared.

Rahul Gandhi had on Sunday dared Amit Shah and other BJP leaders to take a walk from Jammu to Lal Chowk if the situation is so good in the Union Territory.

"Target killing and bomb blasts are happening in Jammu and Kashmir and if the security situation has improved then the conversation the security personnel are having with me should not have been required. If the situation is so good why don't the BJP people walk from Jammu to Lal Chowk? Why doesn't Amit Shah walk from Jammu to Kashmir if the situation is so secure? I don't think that argument holds," Congress MP had said.

Reiterating his remark during the closing ceremony of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar where the party hoisted the Tricolour at its office, Rahul Gandhi alleged that leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah cannot understand pain.

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"PM Modi, Amit Shah, and RSS have not seen violence. We walked here for four days. I can guarantee you that no BJP leader can walk like this here, not because the people of J-K will not let them walk, but because they are scared," Rahul Gandhi said.

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"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.

He also claimed that the security personnel suggested him to go to Kashmir in a vehicle and not on foot during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, and said that Mahatma Gandhi taught him to live fearlessly and hence walked on foot.

"Security people had told me to go to Kashmir in a vehicle and not on foot. 3-4 days back, the administration told me that if I go on foot, a grenade would be hurled at me. I thought to give an opportunity to those who hate me, to change the colour of my white t-shirt to red," Gandhi said.

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"My family taught me, and Gandhi ji taught me to live fearlessly, otherwise, that is not living. But it happened just as I expected, the people of J&K didn't give me a grenade but only love," he said.

Congress had earlier claimed a security lapse in the Bharat Jodo Yatra which had entered Kashmir last week.

Rahul Gandhi alleged that the police personnel who were supposed to manage the crowd during the Yatra were nowhere to be seen.