Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur on Monday targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his comments in the UK that the structures of Indian democracy were under “brutal attack”, saying he was “maligning India” from foreign soil as part of a conspiracy to hide his failures.
“Don’t betray India, Rahul Gandhi ji. The objections to India’s foreign policy is evidence of your scant understanding of the issue. No one will believe the lies you spread about India from foreign soil,” Thakur told reporters in Delhi.
“Rahul Gandhi has become a storm of controversies. Be it foreign agencies, foreign channels or be it foreign soil. He does not lose a single opportunity to malign India,” the minister added.
On Saturday, Gandhi, who is on a week-long visit to the UK, reiterated his criticism of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, described the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ as an expression of voice against the ruling BJP’s attempt to silence the country and expressed regret that democratic parts of the world, including the US and Europe, have failed to notice that a “large chunk of democracy has come undone”.
Thakur said, “Why should he (Gandhi) ask the US to intervene? I would only say that India’s democracy is strong, people are strong and the armed forces too are strong. India has a leadership that is strong and farsighted and world leaders have said they believe in India and they trust (Prime Minister) Modi.”
{{/usCountry}}Thakur said, “Why should he (Gandhi) ask the US to intervene? I would only say that India’s democracy is strong, people are strong and the armed forces too are strong. India has a leadership that is strong and farsighted and world leaders have said they believe in India and they trust (Prime Minister) Modi.”
{{/usCountry}}“His (Gandhi) party had done it earlier, when it took local issues to the United Nations, and now to ask other countries to intervene in India. They have not yet come out of the thought of slavery,” the BJP leader added.
“His language, his thoughts, his style of functioning. Everything is suspect. This is not the first time, he has done it time and again. When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, he raised questions on India’s vaccines,” he said.
“When our soldiers were martyred, he said they were killed by a car bomb. Is this the manner in which Rahul Gandhi thinks about the armed forces? Sometimes to malign our soldiers, he says they were slapped. What all he says,” Thakur added.
Rejecting the BJP’s allegations that he was maligning India’s image abroad, Gandhi on Saturday said, “I have never defamed my country, I’m not interested in it, I will never do it. The BJP likes to twist what I say.”
(With PTI inputs)