London: Rahul Gandhi thanks Indian diaspora for extending support to Bharat Jodo Yatra

"I would like to thank all of them for extending their love and support to the Bharat Jodo Yatra from different parts of the world. Their dedication to the cause of our motherland is an inspiration for me," posted Gandhi on his Facebook page.

The Congress leader said that he had a "wonderful opportunity to address and interact with the Indian diaspora in London."

"Indians abroad are a shining example of our culture of love, affection and respect. It is a matter of pride how they live in harmony everywhere with different cultures around them," he added.

This comes after his tirade against the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) government overseas.

The BJP has accused Gandhi of maligning India abroad after repeated electoral defeats, after his address at his alma mater Cambridge University.

Gandhi launched a scathing attack on the ruling BJP during an interaction with the Indian diaspora in London and said that "at the heart of their ideology is cowardice", mentioning External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's remarks on China.

"This is there in their ideology and the foreign minister in the country is saying it. You imagine him saying China is stronger than us, we don't fight with them. The British were stronger than us, so we should not have fought with them. How would we have gotten Independence had we followed BJP and RSS principles? At the heart of their ideology is cowardice. That is the lesson for everybody," remarked Rahul.

Meanwhile, BJP accused Rahul Gandhi of supporting China at a time when the Chinese army and the Indian army stand face to face.

Stating that he had only got better, Rahul said, "The more they attack me, the better it is for me. The more I understand, the more I learn. This is the fight between courage and cowardice. It is a fight between respect and disrespect. It is a fight between love and hatred."

Reiterating what he said during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi mentioned that he has come to open 'nafrat ke bazaar mein Mohabbat ki dukan' (spread love in the atmosphere of hatred).

Highlighting his learning experience of the yatra, Rahul Gandhi said, "The interesting thing for me was what the people of India were saying. Unemployment, prices, the concentration of wealth, and Mr Adani. It is not in the media at all. In the media, we see anger, hatred, and violence. Then we see Bollywood, Aishwarya Rai, Salman Khan, and cricket, we see all these things. But we don't see the real issues the people of India face."

"We walked for almost 4,000 kms. It was a huge effort. In the first five or six days, I started asking myself my role in the yatra. My role is that whoever came in the yatra, regardless of being rich, poor, young, old, male, or female, I decided my role would be to make them feel when they came to speak to us, that they had come back home. I told the people who were working with me that listen, we have to respect every single person who comes and he has to feel he has come home and when he leaves he must feel that he has left home. We do not want a political relationship with him, we want an emotional and family relationship with him," the Congress leader added. (ANI)