The Bharatiya Janata Party has taken aim at Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, over an inaccurate historical reference made during a podcast conversation with senior Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit.
The remark, made in a podcast shared online, drew attention when BJP MP Lahar Singh Siroya posted on X (formerly Twitter), objecting to Gandhi’s comment that Mahatma Gandhi had been thrown out of a train in England.
“I watched this interview with curiosity because @RahulGandhi was speaking about his great grandfather Pandit #Nehru. However, I was very disappointed when I heard him say (at 2 mins 40 secs) that Mahatma Gandhi Ji was thrown out of the train in England. I recorded the video on my other phone so that they don’t edit it out to cover it up later,” wrote Siroya in his post.
He added, “I have also captured the auto caption in YouTube, which reflects what Rahul Ji exactly says. Nobody should learn history from Rahul Ji. Even a person like me who is not highly educated knows Gandhi Ji was thrown out of the train in South Africa. Sad that the Nehru Centre people, and all the intelligent Congressmen and @_SandeepDikshit Ji, who is a very nice person, did not spot this error before releasing the video.”
The BJP has often accused Rahul Gandhi of lacking historical accuracy, and this recent misstep has once again invited criticism from the party ranks.
In the podcast, Gandhi was reflecting on the influence of his ancestors and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s development as a statesman.
“Jawaharlal Nehru was fundamentally shaped by his father. So his father also had a very important role in who he was and what he became — an underestimated role,” Gandhi said.
When Dikshit interrupted to clarify, “Motilal Nehru?” Gandhi responded: “Yes Motilal ji. And his father was a very particular type of person. When, you know when Gandhiji was thrown out of the train in England. So, my great-great-grandfather and his cousins decided they would go to the Allahabad railway station, and throw some Britishers out of the first class.”
The reference appears to confuse a well-documented incident from Mahatma Gandhi’s life. On 7 June 1893, Gandhi, then a young lawyer in South Africa, was ejected from a train travelling to Pretoria after refusing to move from the first-class compartment, despite holding a valid ticket. The incident occurred in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and played a crucial role in shaping Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violent resistance.
The Congress party has not yet officially responded to the criticism.
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