Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday said he had forgiven the Students Federation of India (SFI) activists who vandalised his office in Wayanad.

On his first visit to his Lok Sabha constituency after SFI workers attacked his office and smashed furniture on June 24, Rahul said they had no idea about the consequences of such an act of violence.

“It is an unfortunate thing that has been done. Everywhere in the country, you see the idea that violence will resolve problems. But violence never resolves problems,” he said.

“However, they (SFI cadres) are also children…. But they have acted in an irresponsible way. I don’t have any anger or hostility towards them. They have done a silly thing. We should leave it at that,” the Congress MP said, seeking to close an issue that had triggered protests by party workers in the state.

“They are kids. I don’t think they understand the consequences of these types of things. So I think we should be forgiving as far they are concerned,” he said, adding that the office would be fixed soon.

The SFI cadres broke in and vandalised his office while protesting Rahul’s alleged inaction in approaching the Union government over a Supreme Court ruling on a buffer zone in forest and wildlife reserves.

The SFI cadres were apparently oblivious to the fact that Rahul had already written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to address the issue concerning lives and livelihood of thousands who live in districts like Wayanad that skirt forests and wildlife reserves. Police have since arrested more than 20 SFI workers.

“Fine, they have a slightly different ideology than us. We don’t appreciate the fact that they have broken my office, but we will fix our office. It’s not going to stop working because they have come here and broken it. We will fix it and make it back to normal. But we should be forgiving towards them,” Rahul said on Friday.

CPM base attacked

On Thursday night, a lone motorbike rider had hurled an explosive device at AKG Centre, which houses the state CPM headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, before speeding away. AKG Centre, the equivalent of the once-powerful CPM office on Alimuddin Street in Calcutta, is considered a parallel power centre in Kerala whenever the CPM heads the government.

Since the entire spot was deserted at 11.30pm, the explosion could only create some minor damage to the boundary wall of the party office.

Chief minister and CPM leader Pinarayi Vijayan, who visited the spot on Friday morning, said: “This (the bomb attack) is an attempt to provoke and stir law and order problems in the state. Caution should be exercised to ensure no one would fall for such provocations.”

Congress leaders immediately denied any role in the incident. “Only fools would think that the Congress would do something that would belittle the importance of this day when Rahul Gandhi is touring his constituency,” state party president K. Sudhakaran told reporters.