'LoP unsafe on Indian soil?' Rahul Gandhi barred from visiting flood-hit border village

At the river’s edge, Gandhi challenged police—“Is it not India?”—after being stopped from meeting flood-hit families, with Congress calling it a political move hiding behind weak security excuses.

Chandigarh: The Congress on Monday accused the Punjab Police of not allowing party leader Rahul Gandhi to meet flood-affected villagers across the Ravi river in Gurdaspur district.

Gandhi was on a visit to Punjab to interact with flood-hit people in Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts. He visited Ghonewal village in Amritsar and Gurchak village in Gurdaspur.

However, party leaders alleged that Gandhi was stopped by the local police from visiting Toor, a border village across the Ravi river in Gurdaspur. Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring claimed the police cited security reasons.

A video also emerged in which Gandhi was posing questions to senior police officials on why he was not being allowed to go across the Ravi river.

"You are telling me that you cannot keep me safe on Indian territory. That is what you are saying," Gandhi asked a Punjab Police officer.

To which, the officer replied, "We are always ready to protect you".

Then Gandhi countered, "But you are saying that is India (while pointing towards the village across Ravi river) and you cannot protect me in India."

"Is it not India," asked Gandhi who was accompanied by state unit chief Warring and MP Sukhjinder Randhawa.

"You want to say that the LoP (Leader of Opposition) cannot go because Punjab Police is unable to protect," said Gandhi.

Later, Congress leader and former Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi also accused the Punjab government of not allowing Gandhi to visit a village across the Ravi river to meet affected families.

"Our own people stay there. He (Gandhi) wanted to enquire about their well-being. We have been holding a medical camp there for the past three-days. It is unfortunate that he was not being allowed to meet people," said Channi while speaking to reporters.

Punjab Congress chief Warring said Gandhi wanted to meet people and know their problems living across the Ravi river.

"Security (people) is saying that you cannot go. There is a threat. If Rahul Gandhi has a threat from Pakistan in India and if we are not safe in India then where are we safe," he asked.

Senior Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa lashed out at the AAP government for not allowing Gandhi to go across the Ravi river.

Terming it as "shameful and insensitive", Bajwa said the government was using "flimsy security pretexts" to stop Gandhi from reaching the worst-hit areas.

"This was not a security issue, it was a political decision to avoid accountability," Bajwa alleged.

He also alleged that both AAP and BJP leaders failed to even set foot in the border villages that have been badly affected by the floods.

"These are our people, our fellow Indians. Just because they live near the border does not make them less deserving of help," said Bajwa.