New Delhi- The BJP slammed Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday over his remarks in Berlin, alleging that the Congress leader speaks against India and defames the country on foreign soil because he is “rattled” by the fact that his party colleagues and even family members are showing “no confidence” in him.
Gandhi has lost people’s confidence, and it is apparent with the Congress losing 95 elections under his leadership, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla told a press conference at the party headquarters here.
The BJP came down heavily on Gandhi after the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha alleged that the ruling party is proposing the “elimination of the Constitution” that grants equal rights to every citizen and vowed to create a system of opposition resistance that will succeed in removing it from power.
Speaking at the Hertie School in Berlin last week, Gandhi accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of launching a full-scale assault on the country’s institutional framework and capturing it in order to use it as a tool for building its political power, while asserting that this is what the opposition is fighting against.
In an hour-long video released by the Congress on Monday, Gandhi said India’s largest and most complex democracy is a global asset, and the “assault” on the Indian democratic system is an attack on the global democratic system.
Hitting back at him, Poonawalla said, “Rahul Gandhi is facing no confidence from people. His partners in the INDIA bloc, his own party leaders and even his family members are passing a no-confidence motion against him one after another.”
“Hence, he embarked on a foreign trip once again, while remaining committed to (American investor) George Soros, to vent his ire against the BJP and India. Rahul Gandhi, once again in opposition to Modi and the people’s mandate, started opposing India in Berlin,” he alleged.
Poonawalla claimed that Gandhi is rattled because his party colleagues themselves are “rejecting what he says”, with the latest example being Shashi Tharoor, who “completely diffused” his “vote-chori (vote-theft) narrative” by appreciating the work done by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar over the last 20 years.
“Congress MP Imran Masood has clearly said he does not have faith in Rahul Gandhi anymore and sought to bring Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in his place. Then an endorsement to this came from Robert Vadra, who said, ‘Yes, it is correct’,” the BJP spokesperson said.
“(CPI-M MP) John Brittas has said Rahul Gandhi should not have gone abroad, leaving a Parliament session. He has also made a big disclosure that not only the Left but the DMK was also against the ‘Bharat Badnami Yatra’ of Rahul Gandhi. They said Rahul Gandhi does not take his work seriously,” Poonawalla claimed.
Recently, Odisha Congress leader Mohammed Moquim publicly called for “replacing Rahul Gandhi and (party chief) Mallikarjun Kharge with Priyanka Gandhi”, after which a “diktat” was issued by the “Rahul Gandhi faction in the Congress” to expel him, he claimed.
The BJP leader alleged that the Congress, under Gandhi’s leadership, has become a “Bharat Badnami Brigade” and is engaged in running “baseless and misleading” propaganda against the country, its constitutional institutions and other bodies.
“Rahul Gandhi is following a consistent pattern of going abroad, taking contracts to speak against India, repeating the script of forces linked to Soros and carrying out anti-India propaganda. All this Rahul Gandhi does at the behest of Soros,” he charged.
Poonawalla flayed Gandhi over his “vote-theft” allegation, terming it “baseless”, and asked why the Congress leader has not filed a petition challenging the results of the Bihar election.
He also asked Gandhi to explain whether the electronic voting machines (EVMs) were working fine in Kerala, where the Congress won several seats in the recently-held local body polls.
