Rahul Gandhi

Rahul Gandhi is an Indian National Congress leader, the son of Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi, and has been Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha since 2024. In this record he matters for what he has said, and not said, about the killing of Sikhs in Delhi and elsewhere in November 1984, after Indira Gandhi's assassination, and for his remarks about Sikhs in 2024.

He was born on 19 June 1970 in New Delhi. He has sat in the Lok Sabha for Amethi (2004 to 2019), Wayanad (2019 to 2024) and Rae Bareli (2024 onwards), was Congress vice-president from 2013, and was party president from December 2017 to August 2019. After the 2024 election the Speaker recognised him as Leader of the Opposition with effect from 9 June 2024, the first time in ten years that the post had been filled.

Key moments

• January 2014: in a television interview with Arnab Goswami, he said that some Congressmen were "probably involved" in the 1984 violence against Sikhs and that some of them had been punished through the legal process, as ThePrint's Rasheed Kidwai later summarised it. Gulf News reports that when he was asked whether he would apologise to the Sikh community, he answered: "First of all, I wasn't involved in the riots at all."
• The reaction, as the Tribune reported it: Sukhbir Singh Badal called it a "brazen admission" and urged Sikhs to boycott the Congress; the SGPC called the statement "laughable" and said his failure to apologise reflected the Gandhi family's attitude towards Sikhs; Captain Amarinder Singh, then in the Congress, said the Akalis were distorting the remarks, that Rahul Gandhi had been a teenager in 1984, and that Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh had already expressed regret.
• August 2018: speaking to British parliamentarians in London, asked whether Congress had been involved in 1984, he said he did not agree, adding that there had been violence and a tragedy. Scroll reported the remark and ThePrint's Rasheed Kidwai called it a reversal of his 2014 position.
• September 2024: speaking to Indian-Americans in the United States, he said the fight in India was over whether a Sikh would be allowed to wear his turban or a kada. The BJP criticised him sharply. On 9 July 2025 Delhi Police gave him a clean chit, confirming that he made the remarks but finding that no specific community, individual or group was targeted and that no offence was made out.

Where the party stands: ThePrint records that Manmohan Singh apologised in the Rajya Sabha in 2005, expressing personal shame. In the 2014 interview he was asked directly about the party's part in 1984, and the SGPC answered that he had not apologised.