Uttarakhand minister Ganesh Joshi on Tuesday said martyrdom is not the monopoly of the Gandhi family and the assassinations of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were "accidents".
"I pity Rahul Gandhi's intelligence. Martyrdom is not Gandhi family's monopoly. India's struggle for Independence saw the martyrdoms of Bhagat Singh, Sawarkar and Chandra Shekhar Azad. What happened with the members of the Gandhi family were accidents. There is a difference between accidents and martyrdom," Joshi said.
"But one can speak only according to the level of one's intelligence," he told reporters in reply to a question about the Congress leader's concluding speech at the end of his Bharat Jodo Yatra in Srinagar.
Joshi, who is the state's minister for agriculture, farmers welfare, rural development and sainik kalyan, also credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the smooth conclusion of Rahul Gandhi's Yatra in Jammu and Kashmir.
"The credit goes to the Prime Minister. If the Article 370 had not been abolished under his leadership and normalcy had not returned to Jammu and Kashmir, Rahul Gandhi would not have been able to unfurl the national flag at Lal Chawk. BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi had unfurled the tricolour at Lal Chawk when violence was at its peak in J&K," Joshi said. -- PTI