‘Rahul Gandhi’s Hindu makeover won’t help, Congress will lose all 5 polls’: Sushma Swaraj

Sushma Swaraj, who was in Jaipur for the BJP’s campaign ahead of the December 7 Rajasthan assembly elections, alleged the Congress is facing several dilemmas.

Hitting out at the Congress, External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Saturday said it was clear that the Congress party, beset by many dilemmas, is set to lose the assembly elections in all five states.

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj (Reuters file photo)

Swaraj, who was in Jaipur for the BJP’s campaign ahead of the December 7 Rajasthan assembly elections, alleged the Congress is facing several dilemmas. “They are in a dilemma over whether there will be a coalition, and if (Congress president) Rahul Gandhi will be accepted as leader of the coalition. They are in a dilemma over his religion and caste,” she said at a press conference.

“Surveys that show that Congress is winning due to anti-incumbency... I’d like to tell the pollsters that an organization that is beset by dilemmas, which has lowered morale of workers... can never go with self-confidence to the people. Congress can never win in BJP-ruled states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh,” she said.

The Congress would not win in Telangana and Mizoram either, she added.

“It’s the writing on the wall that a Congress party beset by dilemmas will lose elections in all five states.”

Attacking Gandhi, she said that a programme in Udaipur, the Congress chief had said that in the 21st century education and health services should be available at cheap rates.

“I would like to remind Gandhi that for the first 10 years of the 21st century their government was at the centre. He should have given an account of how cheap education and healthcare was in their tenure,” she said.

Also citing the Congress chief’s statement that if Congress wins in Rajasthan, the chief minister will be sacked if he does not waive loans of farmers within 10 days of coming to power, Swaraj said, “But Rahul Gandhi failed to clarify what action has been taken against the Punjab chief minister who has been in power for more than 10 days and not announced any loan waiver.”

Swaraj also hit out at Gandhi’s comment that Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not know what it is to be a Hindu, alleging Gandhi and the Congress were in a dilemma over his religion and caste and the party tried to do a makeover for him.

“For years the Congress presented Gandhi as secular. Then they realized that majority of the votebank is Hindu so he needed a Hindu makeover,” she said, adding that is why the Congress chief visited Kailash Mansarovar, the Peetambari Peeth in Madhya Pradesh and Pushkar in Rajasthan.

Read | What sort of Hindu is PM Modi, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi asks

“When the question arose about his caste, he was presented as a Pandit as he is (first Prime Minister) Jawaharlal Nehru’s grandson. And then he was presented as a ‘janeyudhari (sacred thread wearing) Brahmin’, said Swaraj.

“Now that janeyudhari Brahmin is telling us what it is to be a Hindu. I hope that day never comes when we have to learn the meaning of what it is to be a Hindu from Gandhi”, she added.

Refuting former finance minister P Chidambaram who had raised questions on the economic growth during the BJP rule, she said in 10 years of UPA rule, the average growth rate was 6.7% while in the BJP’s first three years, it was 7.3% and this year, the growth rate has been 7.6%

She said during the UPA rule, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank had placed Indian economy in the “Fragile Five” while now they have placed India among the fastest-growing economies. Under BJP’s rule, India had jumped from 142 to 77 rank in the ease of doing business.

Swaraj also accused Gandhi of lowering the morale of security forces and putting a question mark on his patriotism by questioning the surgical strikes. “(It is) something that should be accepted with pride.... by raising questions on that he is not doing any good thing for the country.”