New Delhi, Feb. 28 (PTI): Congress president Sonia Gandhi today said Maneka and Varun Gandhi joining the BJP was “painful” as the Nehru-Gandhi family had always fought against communalism.

“In some ways certainly it is painful. The freedom movement strategy was planned in this house (Anand Bhavan in Allahabad). The persons born in this house were stalwarts of the freedom movement…. The fight against communal forces was very much part (of their struggle),” she said in an interview on NDTV’s Walk The Talk.

She declined to say whether Maneka and Varun’s actions were a betrayal of the Nehru-Gandhi family’s legacy.

Asked if she would have felt less hurt if they had joined any party other than the BJP, she said: “Well, obviously…I don’t want to go beyond that.”