The Congress party on Sunday raised alarm over a death threat issued against Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi during a televised debate, urging Union Home Minister Amit Shah to take immediate action.
In a letter shared publicly, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal drew attention to remarks made by Pintu Mahadev, a spokesperson of the Kerala BJP, who reportedly said that “Rahul Gandhi will be shot in the chest.” Venugopal described the threat as “cold, calculated and chilling” and demanded urgent intervention from the Centre.
Venugopal also posted the letter on X, writing, “Disagreements in the political arena must be solved politically, within the constitutional framework. BJP leaders, however, are giving death threats to their political opponents on live TV. Surely, Rahul Gandhi ji’s vehement fight against the RSS-BJP ideology has rattled them.”
The remarks came during a debate on News18’s Kerala channel. Speaking in Malayalam, a clip of which was shared by Venugopal, Mahadev said, “In the popular protests in Bangladesh, the people were not with them (government) there. Here, in India, the people are with the Narendra Modi government. Therefore, if Rahul Gandhi sets out with such a desire or dream, a bullet will fall even on Rahul Gandhi’s chest. Do not doubt it… Such a Gen-Z riot will not happen at all in great India. It will be suppressed and shots will be fired at you,” according to a speech translation by Google’s AI tool.
The Congress letter noted that this was not an isolated incident, pointing to previous online threats directed at Rahul Gandhi, some allegedly linked to BJP supporters. It also recalled the assassinations of former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, stressing that threats against opposition leaders cannot be dismissed lightly.
“This is neither a slip of the tongue, nor careless hyperbole. It is a cold, calculated and chilling death threat against the leader of the opposition and one of India’s foremost political leaders,” the letter said.
The party warned that any failure by the home minister to act “swiftly, decisively and publicly” would be seen as complicity and as a “de facto licence” for legitimising violence. It added that millions of Indians look up to Rahul Gandhi as a defender of democratic values, arguing that a threat to him amounts to an attack on democracy itself.
As of Sunday night, neither Amit Shah nor the government had issued a response.
(With inputs from agencies)
