Leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi (PTI file photo)
The Congress party on Sunday wrote to home minister Amit Shah, raising concerns over a death threat issued against leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi during a televised debate.Congress leader KC Venugopal shared the letter he sent to Amit Shah, after Pintu Mahadev, spokesperson of Kerala BJP, reportedly said that “Rahul Gandhi will be shot in the chest.” Venugopal wrote on X: “Disagreements in the political arena must be solved politically, within the constitutional framework. BJP leaders, however, are giving death threats to their political opponents on live TV. Surely, RahulGandhi ji’s vehement fight against the RSS-BJP ideology has rattled them.” Calling the threat “cold, calculated and chilling”, the party demanded urgent action. It said, “This is neither a slip of the tongue, nor careless hyperbole. It is a cold, calculated and chilling death threat against the leader of the opposition and one of India’s foremost political leaders.”The letter also pointed to multiple previous threats against Rahul Gandhi on social media, some linked to the BJP, and mentioned the assassination of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. The party called the threat a “careless outburst of a petty functionary, symptomatic of a deliberately cultivated, toxic atmosphere of hate that renders the Lop vulnerable to mindless violence.” It urged the home minister to act immediately and decisively, warning that failure to do so would amount to “a de facto licence” for legitimising violence against Rahul Gandhi. “Any failure by you to act swiftly, decisively and publicly will be judged as complicity a de facto licence for the legitimisation and normalisation of violence against the leader of the opposition and a grave breach of your oath as Union home minister,” it said.Also read: ‘Stop the killing’: Rahul Gandhi says ‘Ladakh under attack by RSS, BJP’; pitches for 6th ScheduleThe letter further said that millions of Indians looked up to Rahul Gandhi as a defender of rights and India’s pluralistic values, stressing that a death threat against him was an attack on democracy itself, not just an individual.
