Whole structure of BJP is about lies, says Rahul Gandhi after chairing first CWC meeting

Congress president Rahul Gandhi chaired his first CWC meeting as the party president, and hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over various issues like the 2G spectrum case, demonetisation, GST and the Rafale deal.

A day after a special court acquitted all the accused in the 2G scam, an upbeat Congress, led by party president Rahul Gandhi, launched an attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP for “spreading lies to win elections”.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi chairs a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) in New Delhi on Friday.(PTI)

Gandhi drew a parallel between the campaign initiated by the BJP against his party over the 2G scam in 2014 and Modi’s allegation that former PM Manmohan Singh had colluded with Pakistan ahead of the recent Gujarat elections.

“The entire foundation of BJP is based on lies, the whole structure is about lies,” Gandhi said after chairing the first meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), party’s highest executive body, as the Congress chief.

The 47-year-old maintained that the 2G verdict, in which A Raja —telecom minister in the UPA government— also got a clean chit was a vindication of the party’s stand.

Modi Model attacked

Although the Congress was not able to dethrone the BJP in Gujarat, the party president continued to attack Modi’s ‘Gujarat Model’ of development.

“If you see the ‘Modi Model’ in Gujarat, it was clearly a lie… When we went to Gujarat and spoke to the people, they said there is no model. What is going on is a theft of Gujarat people’s resources. That is their (BJP’s) design,” Gandhi said.

Party’s chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala later said that Gandhi had remarked in the meeting that people can go to any extent to achieve political gains.

Questioning Centre

Posing questions to the Centre, the Congress statement released after the meeting said: “Did PM Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley and the BJP not conspire with Vinod Rai (the then C&AG chief) to malign and defame the country and also the Congress-led UPA with falsehood and lies?”

The grand old party also wanted to know why Modi, finance minister Jaitley and other BJP leaders should not be held accountable for ‘selling lies and allegations’ akin to a scam. It also accused the BJP of wasting the exchequer’s money by stalling the Parliament through its protests.

Checking indiscipline

Congress sources said during the meeting, a few leaders urged partymen to be more disciplined while making statements, a remark that was taken to be a veiled dig at Mani Shankar Aiyar and Kapil Sibal.

Gandhi also told party leaders to reach out to the people and oppose the BJP more at the ground-level. While the party brass reiterated that they should strengthen block-level organisation, a few leaders highlighted the need to counter BJP’s ‘shoot and scoot’ policy.

The CWC also passed a resolution praising former party chief Sonia Gandhi for her “guidance and leadership through challenging times”. Former PM Manmohan Singh praised Sonia during the meet and spoke about the challenges the party may continue to face from the BJP.