Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi has recalled moments of panic during the Kashmir leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra in January 2023, when her son Rahul Gandhi’s security personnel allegedly disappeared as a large crowd gathered around him, forcing a day’s halt to the march.
In her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, Gandhi writes that her concern turned into panic when she saw a massive crowd closing in around Rahul without any visible security presence.
“My nagging worry turned into panic seeing that in the massive crowd closing in around Rahul there was no sign of his security; for reasons best known to themselves, they had just disappeared,” she writes.
Recalling her attempts to intervene, she says: “Frantic, I rang up everyone I could. The Kashmir Yatra was held up for a day till security arrangements were restored.”
The march resumed after security arrangements were put back in place and culminated in Srinagar amid severe weather conditions.
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