JOIN USBJP blames Rahul for not apologising to the court
A day after the Lok Sabha Secretariat notified Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the House, BJP leaders sought to blame the former Wayanad MP for his lot since he did not apologise in the court for his comments.
They stressed that the episode had nothing to do with the Adani issue.
There were stray BJP protests accusing Gandhi of “insulting” OBCs, but some in the party felt that the BJP handed the Congress leader an emotive issue on a platter.
Emotive issue on platter
Opposition leaders, such as Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, issued statements slamming the BJP’s politics of malice, equating it with that of the Congress during the Emergency.
Congress leaders will collect at Rajghat on Sunday to protest Rahul’s disqualification.
Congress leaders said his disqualification has vindicated Rahul’s comments in the UK that democracy in India is in danger.
In Patna, former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad rejected questions that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “scared” of Rahul’s questions on the Adani issue and that the Congress leader is misleading people by linking the two.
He said the episode was to “encash” sympathy for the Karnataka Assembly polls.
Karnataka polls
“Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s statement confirms that the Congress did not press into service its famed battery of legal experts with the Karnataka polls in mind. What else can explain their failure to show the alacrity which was for all to see in Pawan Khera’s case?” Prasad said.
In Guwahati, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that a slip of the tongue sometimes happens.
“We have experienced it too, but we issue a statement
apologising, saying it was unintentional. Gandhi could have done the same and the matter would have ended there”, Sarma said.
Gandhi, however, did not apologise nor withdraw the comments over the last five years, which goes to “show that it was intentional and made to abuse the OBC community,” Sarma claimed.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Shashi Tharoor said the BJP had scored an own goal.
“In every capital, there are headlines about what has happened to Rahul Gandhi. Secondly, they have also created a level of Opposition unity that did not exist before,” Tharoor said, adding how even the regional parties that were “ferociously opposed” to the Congress in their states had now come out in favour of Gandhi and condemned the act as an assault on democracy.