Rahul Gandhi and Indira Gandhi’s UK visit bear striking similarities

Rahul Gandhi and Indira Gandhi’s UK visit bear striking similarities

Dissimilar to his grandmother and former India PM Indira Gandhi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi never encountered with demonstrators, apparently when India’s high-pitched political battle raised the profile of Rahul’s UK trip, which the BJP has capitalised on.

Recently Rahul Gandhi was in the UK and India’s former prime minister Indira Gandhi was in the UK in 1978, pictured here with then Tory leader Margaret Thatcher, with whom she enjoyed a close relationship.

Whereas Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the United Kingdom has some striking similarities to the one his grandmother Indira Gandhi, made 45 years ago in November 1978. Both visited the UK for just over a week, spoke with students from University of Cambridge, held meetings at the Grand Committee Room of the House of Commons and riled the ruling dispensation back in New Delhi.

Amid Rahul Gandhi’s UK trip continuing. to reverberate in India’s political discourse, however, BJP demands an apology from him for allegedly asking foreign powers to intervene and for defaming India. The second leg of the Parliament’s budget session is in a limbo, as the Congress maintains the controversy engineered to avoid a debate on Gautam Adani. But there was no such demand by the Morarji Desai-led coalition government from Indira Gandhi, who spoke on India inching towards anarchy in a combative interview to Jonathan Dimbleby, a famous TV journalist whose brother David and father Richard Dimbleby are also legendary presenters.

This interview, and her other innumerable media interactions amidst the UK visit showcases that she did not shy away from criticising New Delhi, but did draw a line when she found it necessary. On India’s nuclear policy the former prime minister found it inappropriate to make policy statements on such a vital issue on foreign soil unlike Rahul Gandhi.

News Input K.V.Raman