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Was Told Grenades Will be Lobbed at Me in J&K, Militants Were in the Crowd: Rahul Gandhi

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Was Told Grenades Will be Lobbed at Me in J&K, Militants Were in the Crowd: Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi, Mar 3: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said he was told by security personnel in Jammu and Kashmir that he would have hand-grenades thrown at him, adding that a person walking next to him pointed to him that militants were present in the crowd staring at him when his Bharat Jodo Yatra passed through Kashmir.

Speaking at Cambridge University, Gandhi said his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Kashmir was a “new narrative” and shared how he realized the power of non-violence and listening.

“We were told that we are going to be killed. During the yatra, a person asked to be called to walk next to me. He told me ‘look at those boys (in the crowd) over there’. He said ‘they are militants and they are looking at you’. They gave me this look; I thought now I am in trouble,” Gandhi recounted.

“They (the militants) actually couldn’t do anything, even if they wanted to, they did not have the power. Because I had come in that environment with no violence at all. That was an indicator to me of the power of non-violence and listening,” Gandhi added.

He said that when he was entering Kashmir, security personnel told him that he cannot walk in Kashmir. “I was walking three days in the roughest districts of Kashmir. The security men told me that you will have hand-grenades thrown at you. But I wanted to walk, so I said if it be hand grenades, let it be hand grenades. We saw Indian flags coming up everywhere during the yatra. Around 40,000 people showed up against 2,000 people who were expected,” Gandhi said.

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The Bharat Jodo Yatra had ended on January 30 in an opposition show of strength with leaders of several parties joining Rahul Gandhi as he capped his ambitious 145-day journey that covered some 4,000 km from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.

The former Congress president had unfurled the Tricolour at the yatra campsite and then went to the Pradesh Congress Committee office where party chief Mallikarjun Kharge hoisted the national flag. From there they went to the Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium at the foothills of the Shankaracharya Hills for a rally marking the grand finale of the cross-country yatra.–(News18)
[03/03, 4:53 pm] Wani waheed: *Met militants’ during Bharat Jodo Yatra in J&K, says Rahul Gandhi*

Speaking at the esteemed Cambridge University, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed in the lecture that he came face to face with militants during the Kashmir leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra

As per a report by India Today, Gandhi said the government forces in Kashmir had asked him not to walk in the region as there was a fear of attacks. However, the Congress MP chose to continue with the yatra.

Moments later, the man pointed towards some nearby people and revealed they were all militants, Gandhi added.

“I thought I was in trouble because in that situation terrorists would kill me. But they did not do anything because this is the power of listening,” Rahul Gandhi said

Rahul Gandhi added, “I talked to my people and told them that I wanted to continue the walk. We continued walking when an unknown man approached me. He told me he wanted to talk to me.”

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Gandhi said that the man asked him if the Congress leaders had really come to the Union Territory to listen to the woes of the people, as per India Today.

Gandhi arrived in the UK on Tuesday to kick off his week-long tour with an address at the University of Cambridge. He also held discussions with Indian diaspora groups there.

During his lecture, Rahul Gandhi focussed at the prestigious University of Cambridge on the “art of listening” and called for new thinking to promote a democratic environment globally, as opposed to a coercive one

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