BJP cites Trump case, asks Opp to stop using words inciting violence against Modi
Sudhanshu Trivedi, a BJP national spokesperson, said Abe’s assassination in July 2022 and the attempt to kill Trump stemmed from the violent appeals of political leaders
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday urged Opposition parties, particularly the Congress and Rahul Gandhi, to refrain from using words that could incite violence against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump on July 13 and Japanese leader Shinzo Abe’s killing in 2022.
Sudhanshu Trivedi, a BJP national spokesperson, said Abe’s assassination in July 2022 and the attempt to kill Trump stemmed from the violent appeals political leaders made in their speeches to fulfil their short term political goals.
He blamed Rahul Gandhi, the Opposition leader in Lok Sabha, for using language that could incite violence against Modi. “Violent words like ‘death’ and ‘digging a grave’ have been used in the speeches of Congress leaders. Politics is one thing and inciting violence is another,” said Trivedi at a press conference.
He referred to the security lapse during Modi’s Punjab visit in January 2022 when the Prime Minister was stuck on a flyover for about 20 minutes as a group of protesting farmers blocked a road to Ferozepur and the serial blasts at the October 2013 rally of the then BJP’s prime ministerial candidate. “Modi and [defence minister and the then BJP chief] Rajnath Singh were at the [2013] rally and both had Z+ level security when the Congress was ruling at the Centre. This was a major security breach on the part of the Congress government,” said Trivedi.
He said the BJP government has taken the security of political leaders seriously and as a matter of importance. “When Rahul Gandhi visited Kashmir and Manipur, the routes were sanitized and his security was taken care of,” said Trivedi.
He said former Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in 2007 used the phrase “maut ke saudagar (dealers of death)” against Modi when he was the Gujarat chief minister. “We did not use such words against [Prime Minister] Indira Gandhi even during Emergency [in the 1970s].”
Trivedi said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Intelligence Bureau stood against each other in the Ishrat Jahan case. He added this happened when the CBI reversed its stand on the terrorist identity of Jahan. “The decision of the CBI to reverse its stand was made because it was found that Jahan’s target was the then chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi,” said Trivedi.