Rahul Gandhi today reached out to a large crowd in election-bound Rajasthan with emotional memories of his grandmother, former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
“They killed my grandmother, my father, maybe they’ll kill me,” Mr Gandhi said at a rally in Churu, as he recounted Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984 by her Sikh bodyguards.
“My security officer told me my grandmother had been shot. My legs were trembling. Priyanka and I were taken home and on the road there was grandmother’s blood and in a room there was the blood on my friends,” he said.
The Congress leader said he was sent home from school, when the news came.
Talking about the assassins, Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, Mr Gandhi said he played badminton with the men who gunned down his grandmother.
“I had two friends Beant Singh and Satwant Singh, they taught me how to play badminton. They were my friends. In 1984 I was in the garden I met Beant Singh and he asked me where does your grandmother sleep, is her security adequate? If somebody throws a grenade at you, he told me how to lie down. At that time I did not understand what he meant. Years later I understood that Satwant Singh and Beant Singh were going to throw a grenade at her during Diwali.”
The 43-year-old also spoke about memories of Indira Gandhi often coming to his rescue against strict parents. “My grandmother, Indira Gandhi was my saviour… for example, I hated eating spinach. She would start reading the newspaper and behind the newspaper I would give the spinach a miss.”
