Union health minister and Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) president JP Nadda on Thursday slammed the Congress for overlooking the “misdeeds” of its leaders including Rahul Gandhi, whom he accused of having a history of abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
Nadda made the comments in a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who earlier this week had written to PM Modi to raise the issue of “extremely objectionable” and violent statements by the members of the ruling NDA targeting the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and urged him to discipline his leaders.
“You have written a letter to Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi in an attempt to polish your failed product, which has been repeatedly rejected by the public, and bring it to the market due to political compulsion. Your comments are far from truth. It appears from your letter that you have either forgotten the misdeeds of your leaders including Rahul Gandhi or have deliberately ignored them,” Nadda wrote in the letter to Kharge.
The BJP chief said Gandhi has a history of calling the entire OBCs, including the PM, a “thief” and using extremely indecent words against Modi. “Under what compulsion are you trying to justify Rahul Gandhi,” he asked Kharge in a three-page letter written in Hindi.
In the last 10 years, Congress leaders have abused Modi 110 times, Nadda claimed, accusing the opposition party of double standards. He also alleged no leader in the history of independent India was “insulted” as much as Modi was by Congress leaders, citing several objectionable remarks used for the prime minister over the years.
Taking a swipe at Gandhi, Nadda wrote: “What is the Congress taking pride in him for… for talking to people who have an anti-India stance or for attendance at events in support of terrorists.”
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The Congress was quick to hit back, calling Nadda’s reply to Kharge “intemperate” and “juvenile”.
“The Congress is shocked that the letter written by our president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge ji to the Prime Minister was passed on to you to respond. The silence of the prime minister on a matter as grave as a threat to the life of the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha is very disturbing,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote to Nadda.
“Your response to Mallikarjun Kharge’s letter to the prime minister is both juvenile and shallow, and a shameful attempt to distract from the serious threats to Rahul Gandhi’s life,” the Congress leader added.
In his letter to Modi on Tuesday, Kharge flagged “violent” remarks made by leaders of the BJP and its allies against Rahul Gandhi.
“I have to say with sadness that the violent language used by the leaders of the BJP and your allies is harmful for the future. The world is shocked that the Minister of State for Railways in the central government, a minister from BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, is calling the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha ‘number one terrorist’,” Kharge had said in an apparent reference to the remarks by MoS Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu and UP minister Raghuraj Singh.
On Wednesday, Congress leader Ajay Maken lodged a police complaint in Delhi, citing the remarks of BJP leaders Tarvinder Singh Marwah, Bittu and Singh as well as those of Shiv Sena legislator Sanjay Gaikwad, and sought registration of FIRs against them.
“On September 11, Marwah in a BJP event openly issued an assassination threat against Rahul Gandhi, wherein he said ‘Rahul Gandhi baaz aaja, nahi toh aanewale time mein tera bhi wohi haal hoga jo teri dadi ka hua (you better behave yourself or you will meet the same fate as that of your grandmother)’,” the complaint said.
It also cited Gaikwad’s announcement of a bounty of ₹11 lakh for anyone who will cut Gandhi’s tongue as well as Union minister of state (MoS) for Railways Ravneet Bittu’s remarks, calling Gandhi the “number one terrorist in the country”.
“Bittu deliberately made the statement to provoke public hatred and outrage against Gandhi, with the aim to incite violence and breach of peace. The said statement was widely publicised on television channels and social media,” Maken said in the complaint.
It cited Uttar Pradesh minister Raghuraj Singh’s remarks that Gandhi is the “number one terrorist in India”.