Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot claimed on Thursday Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi is being targeted for the Prime Minister Narendra Modis security breach because Channi is a ‘Dalit’ Chief Minister.

On Wednesday, the Prime Minister’s rally in Ferozepur had to be cancelled due to a security lapse after some protesters blocked a route and forced his convoy to spend about 20 minutes on a flyover. The Prime Minister was enroute the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala when the incident happened.

“For the first time in the history of Punjab in Independent India, a Dalit candidate has been appointed as the Chief Minister and he has been welcomed by the entire nation. However, the Prime Minister is giving the message that he managed to exit safely from that state. The PM should not make such a comment,” Gehlot said while addressing a press conference Congress headquarters here.

Some people are ‘defaming’ the Congress for political gains by levelling charges of breach of PM’s security, he said. He then went on to make a bizarre argument that Congress has ‘non-violence as its ideology’, so shouldn’t be ‘taught non-violence’ by BJP and RSS.

“Congress leaders and Prime Ministers have sacrificed their lives for this nation. The party follows non-violence as its ideology, while BJP and RSS have violence in their minds. How can they teach us non-violence,” Gehlot asked.

How legitimate questions asked of a state govt for a security lapse can be construed as preaching non-violence, is something that left political observers scratching their heads. Clearly, the Congress leadership seems rattled and is clutching at straws by making such inane statements.

Our ‘secular’ polity’s obsession with the outdated Gandhian idea of unilateral non-violence is not just hypocritical – cue the Congress’ own history of violence such as 1948 anti-Brahmin pogrom, 1984 anti-Sikh riots, and innumerable massacres by Communists – but also delusional given Bharat’s geopolitical realities and the dangerous enemies, both internal and external, we are faced with.

Also, Gehlot and other senior Congressmen should make up their minds on which line to take over this serious security lapse. Do they want to mock the country’s PM for ‘fleeing’ Punjab, like 41-year-old Indian Youth Congress’ National President Srinivas BV did in imitation of Islamists who mocked our security forces with the same “How’s the josh/jaish?” (How are the spirits?) jibe after the Pulwama suicide attack carried out by a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist?

Or do they agree with the line taken by their Punjab leader Sunil Jhakkar who slammed his party’s government over the PM’s security breach, saying it is ‘just not acceptable’? Another Congress leader Manish Tewari has also pointed out the serious risk to the PM’s life due to being immobilized at a spot so close to the border that he was within range of Pakistan’s artillery.

Incidentally, questions have been raised on Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi’s SC (Dalit) status, with critics wondering whether he has converted to Christianity and thus should surrender the SC status as per Constitutional norms.

(With IANS inputs)