My father’s death biggest learning experience of my life: Rahul Gandhi

TIL Desk/National/Cambridge/ Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was left stumped and emotional at the University of Cambridge by a question linked to his father Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination on May 23 evening. The question and answer session to mark ‘India at 75’ was hosted by Assistant Professor of Indian History at Cambridge and Director of Studies at the university’s Corpus Christi College, Dr Shruti Kapila.

After a long pause during which he was visibly moved by the subject, he finally replied: “I think the word that comes to mind is forgiveness. It’s not precisely the most accurate.” He then added: “The single biggest learning experience of my life was my father’s death.

“Thereafter, an Indian academic dealing with public policy challenged Gandhi’s reiteration of what is inscribed in the Indian Constitution that ‘India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States’ by saying it also describes the country as a ‘nation’ and one which had a ‘composite culture’. Gandhi disagreed. He said: “The word nation is a western concept.” He continued by stressing the union of states definition “goes to the heart of Indianness”.