Terming it “quite a difficult day” he said, “It’s a terrible tragedy for Wayanad, for Kerala and the nation.We have come here to see the situation, it’s quite a painful experience to see how many people have lost their family members, lost houses. It’s very difficult to speak to people in these circumstances because really, you don’t know what to say to them. It’s been quite a difficult day for me, but we are going to try and help, and make sure the survivors get what is their due.”
“I feel how I felt when my father died. I remember what I felt when my father died … and here people have not just lost a father, they have lost their entire family,” Rahul said after meeting the victims along with his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
Rahul, in fact said the feeling was worse than the one he had after the death of his father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
“I know what I felt (at the time of father’s death) and this is much worse than that, and it’s not one person who is feeling it, it’s thousands of people who are feeling it,” the Congress MP said.
“It’s a terrible tragedy for Wayanad, for Kerala and for the nation. We have come here to see the situation, it’s quite a painful experience to see how many people have lost their family members, lost houses. It’s very difficult to speak to people in these circumstances because really, you don’t know what to say to them. It’s been quite a difficult day for me, but we are going to try and help, and make sure the survivors get what is their due. A lot of people want to be relocated, so I hope the government takes that into account,” he added.
His sister Priyanka Gandhi, who also visited the affected site and and met the victims in the hospital said, “I feel very similar to what my brother feels. We have spent the whole day meeting people who have suffered. It’s an immense tragedy. We can only imagine the kind of pain that people are suffering.”
Adding that the visit is to provide all the help that they can, Priyanka said, “We are here to give as much comfort and support as we can to help in any way we can, and I am also very proud to see how everybody is coming together, not just from Wayanad and Kerala, but from the whole country to help people who are going through this.”
Their father and former PM Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in a suicide bombing in Tamil Nadu, India on 21 May 1991.
The BJP, however, took a jibe at the visit by the Gandhis calling it ‘tragedy tourism’. Party IT head Amit Malviya on X said, “Someone needs to tell Third Time Fail Rahul Gandhi that Wayanad is ravaged by a tragedy, which could have been averted, had he done the needful as an MP.”
Sharing a photo of the visit Malviya said, “But he seems to think it is a photo op. Look at the number of cameras accompanying Balak Buddhi. Gandhis love Tragedy Tourism.”
After Lok Sabha election results 2024, Rahul Gandhi let go his Wayanad seat in order to retain family bastion Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh. The party announced that Priyanka Gandhi will debut in active politics by contesting bypolls of this Lok Sabha seat.
Both Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi visited the landslide-affected area of Chooralmala in Kerala’s Wayanad. They also met the victims at the Community Health Centre in Meppadi.
The death toll in the tragedy has crossed over 280 on Thursday and the rescue operations are still underway.