Anant Kumar Hegde, Union Minister of State for Skill Development, has dropped a bombshell, by suggesting that Rahul Gandhi is a Muslim.
Hegde wanted to be put on “record” for saying that Rahul is a “son of a Muslim (Rajiv Gandhi) and mother (Sonia Gandhi) is a Christian.”
Hegde added: “When Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, DNA of his kin was needed to establish his identity. When the sample of Rahul’s DNA was asked, Sonia Gandhi refused to give. Instead, she asked to take samples of Priyanka. It’s not a joke. I can show it on records.”
In view of Rahul’s recent claims that he is a janeudhari Hindu, Hegde said in a video which has gone viral: “A father who is a Muslim and a mother who is a Christian and the son claims to be a Brahmin. How is it possible?”
Hegde is no rookie politician. A whizkid, Hegde became a member of parliament at the age of 27 from Uttar Kannada, Karnataka in 1996. Since then he has won all five successive Lok Sabha elections.
Though internet is rife with stories that Indira Gandhi’s husband, to start with, was Feroze Khan who surname was changed to Gandhi at the insistence of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru who feared a public backlash (“Isn’t Feroze and Gandhi are two mismatched names” is the online insinuation), there is no incontrovertible proof in public domain.
As per these internet swirls, Indira became a muslim and married Feroze Khan in a London mosque. A photo much in circulation where India is seen marrying Feroze in a vedic ceremony was conducted on their return to India for public consumption.
There is little authentic information about Feroze Gandhi available in public. Much of it is because Congress do little to keep his memory alive. His birthday is neither celebrated nor his death mourned as is the case with other members of the Gandhi dynasty such as Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. It is, as if he never existed – quite incongruous for he literally is the father of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
Hegde’s comments appear to be a pretty strategic attack on Rahul Gandhi as a bitter 2019 General Election draws near. Hegde is willing to go on record, knowing fully well that it wouldn’t be taken lying down either by the Gandhi clan or by the Indian National Congress. The ball is now in Sonia and Rahul Gandhi’s court. Ignoring it would be adding fuel to the fire and confronting it on could be doubly disastrous for Hegde has insisted his allegation be put on “record.”
It would imply that Hegde, if challenged by Gandhis or hauled to court through a petition, has amply ammunition to prove that Feroze Gandhi was indeed Feroze Khan to begin with. Internet put Feroze’s father as Jehangir Khan Ghady, popularly known as Nawab Khan in Kotpariwad in South Gujarat.
