Former union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of resorting to lies again to defend his London speech and said he was trying to prove himself a “martyr” after his disqualification as a member of the Lok Sabha to take political mileage in upcoming Karnataka assembly elections. (Also Read | On Rahul Gandhi row, Prashant Kishor recalls Vajpayee's words: ‘chhote mann se…')
“The fact is that businessmen Adani issue has nothing to do with his disqualification. In fact, it is Rahul Gandhi, who is trying to distract the attention from his habit of speaking disparagingly about others and in this case the backward classes. It is the Surat court that served him sentence after he did not apologise for his casteist remark,” he told reporters at the Bihar BJP office in Patna.
Prasad said it was surprising why and how a number of senior lawyers in the Congress chose not to intervene to avoid this situation, as they did in the case of Congress media in-charge Pawan Khera a few weeks ago. “As many as 32 other leaders, including six of the BJP and RJD leader Lalu Prasad, have been disqualified from the Lok Sabha. Seven cases of defamation against Gandhi is still pending in different courts, including one in Patna,” he said.
The BJP leader said the Congress was trying to take political mileage out of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, which was just a natural corollary of the court order and in line with provisions laid down under the Representation of People’s Act. “The BJP will go the public to expose the deliberate attempt of Rahul Gandhi to belittle backward classes,” said Prasad, adding that the party would undertake a nationwide campaign against the Congress leader for his bid to disgrace the backward classes.
{{/usCountry}}The BJP leader said the Congress was trying to take political mileage out of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, which was just a natural corollary of the court order and in line with provisions laid down under the Representation of People’s Act. “The BJP will go the public to expose the deliberate attempt of Rahul Gandhi to belittle backward classes,” said Prasad, adding that the party would undertake a nationwide campaign against the Congress leader for his bid to disgrace the backward classes.
{{/usCountry}}Countering Rahul Gandhi’s statement that he did not seek help from foreign countries help to defend democracy in India, Prasad played an audio clip during the conference, (which, however, was not clearly audible), and alleged that the Congress leader usually went abroad to cry whenever he lost elections. “For him, democracy comes under threat when people does not vote for his party, Election Commission becomes partial and judiciary turns out to be weak,” said Prasad adding that they (the BJP) can help it of he (Rahul Gandhi) does not win elections,
“The leaders of the Congress must be ashamed of making baseless remarks about PM Modi, a powerful leader who has taken the developmental journey of India to newer heights, whose stewardship has made India the 5th largest economy in the world. Rahul Gandhi had complained that his phone had Pegasus. But he did not go to get his phone ‘checked’ when asked by the Supreme Court, in case his phone really was marred by it. Why didn’t he go? He actually was afraid,” Prasad said.