Pawan Khera apologises for 2022 ‘tapasya’ tweet after Rahul loses Lok Sabha seat
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his "why all thieves have Modi surname" remark.
Congress leader Pawan Khera on Sunday apologised for a veiled tweet lamenting the snub by the party for a Rajya Sabha seat last year, saying he has realized his mistake drawing inspiration from Rahul Gandhi who "shuns power" and continues his 'tapasya'. Addressing a gathering at the day-long protest at Rajghat against Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha, Pawan Khera, Congress's media and publicity department head, said, “If you try to murder democracy, Rahul Gandhi will speak, be it from inside Parliament or outside it.” (Also Read | You insult my martyr father, call his son 'Mir Jafar': What Priyanka Gandhi said)
"You (BJP) are afraid when Rahul Gandhi takes the name of Adani, you will shiver when he will do so on the streets," he said.
Referring to his tweet on May 29 last year after his name did not figure in a list of party's Rajya Sabha nominees, Khera said, “I want to apologize to all of you, to my leadership that in selfishness, when I did not get a Rajya Sabha berth, I wrote that 'shayad meri tapasya mein kuch kami reh gayi'. Now I see Rahul Gandhi that he shuns power and still continues his tapasya, what could be bigger than that.”
"I apologize to all of you today. I have got inspiration from Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. It is time to fight, to raise one's voice, power comes or doesn't, we will fight and win," Khera told the gathering with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and other senior leaders on the dais.
At the day-long protest, called 'Sankalp Satyagraha', Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said the time had come to raise a voice against an "arrogant government" as barring Rahul Gandhi from contesting elections does not bode well for the country and its democracy.
“My family's blood has nurtured democracy in this country. We are ready to do anything for this country's democracy. Great leaders of the Congress laid the foundation of democracy in this country. If they think they can scare us, they are wrong. We will not be scared.”
"Time has come and we are not the ones who will remain silent anymore," she told the outside Rajghat.
