BJP MP Babulal says ‘traitor’ Rahul doesn’t know whose son he is

A Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian has called Rahul Gandhi a traitor and said the Congress vice-president had no proof who was his father, potentially ratcheting up a war of words between the two parties over evidence of the surgical strikes India claims to have carried out across the Line of Control.

A Bharatiya Janata Party parliamentarian has called Rahul Gandhi a traitor and said the Congress vice-president had no proof who was his father, potentially ratcheting up a war of words between the two parties over evidence of the surgical strikes India claims to have carried out across the Line of Control.

BJP workers burn the photographs of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in Allahabad on Saturday.(PTI)

Chaudhary Babulal, MP from Fatehpur Sikri, trained his guns on Gandhi in Roorkee on Friday in response to the latter questioning the veracity of the government’s surgical strike claims and demanding video proof of the same.

“He is a traitor like his father (former PM Rajiv Gandhi). Rahul Gandhi is asking for proof; he himself has no proof whose son he is,” the BJP leader can be heard saying in a video.

The Congress and the BJP have been in a war of words over the surgical strikes conducted in response to the Uri terror attack that claimed the lives of 19 Indian soldiers.

The Congress vice-president had on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “profiteering” from the blood of soldiers and demanded the proof be released of the surgical strikes conducted by the Indian Army on terror launch pads across the Line of Control in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The next day, Gandhi tweeted: “I fully support the surgical strikes and I have said so unequivocally, but I will not support using the Indian Army in political posters and propaganda all across the country (sic)”.

“Legal action should be taken against those all who are asking for proof of the surgical strike,” Babulal said.

The BJP leader also demanded such “traitors” should be deported either to Pakistan or Dubai, adding that no one will be left in the country to mention the Gandhi family’s name for their “misdeeds”.

In a meeting earlier in the week, the Prime Minister is understood to have cautioned his Cabinet colleagues against creating hysteria over the military action against the backdrop of demands that the government should present proof about the cross-LoC raids to counter the smear campaign by Pakistan.

With inputs from MS Nawaz in Roorkee