Rahul Gandhi's 'apolitical visit' to holy city Amritsar concludes

Amritsar, October 4

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi culminated his ‘personal visit’ to Golden Temple and returned this morning to Delhi. During his two-day stay in Amritsar, he performed sewa at Sri Guru Ram Das Ji Langar Hall and ‘jodha ghar’.

Though, it was declared to be his ‘personal visit’, yet it was planned at a time when tension prevailed between the Congress and AAP leaders in the state over the action against Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira in an old NDPS case.

Nonetheless, Rahul’s tour was devoid of any political activity and the leaders were conveyed to stay out. Only a handful of local Congress leaders accompanied Rahul during his visit to the Golden Temple. This included senior Congress leader and MP from Amritsar Gurjeet Singh Aujla.

“It was for the first time that he chose to attend every Sikh ceremony at the holy shrine and spared ample time from his busy schedule. Though it was purely an apolitical visit, yet it would give dividends on the political sphere too, especially keeping in view the Congress’ anti-Sikh image that was always propagated by the Opposition parties to gain political mileage. I believe that his devotional sense prevailed during his visit to the shrine and could somehow help in toning down the negative perception against the Gandhi family regarding the Sikh community,” he said.

On the other hand, SGPC general secretary Gurcharan Singh Grewal said that anyone as a devotee was welcome to offer prayers and sewa at Golden Temple, yet the Sikhs could only pardon and embrace a person who realised and repented over his mistakes. Grewal said this while referring to the 1984 Operation Blue Star and anti-Sikh riots.

“Did he (Rahul) ever clarify over the decision of his grandmother as PM then or about the Congress leaders who were accused of indulging in anti-Sikh riots till date?” he said.