Union minister's ‘Pappu’ jibe at Rahul Gandhi after Kharge's letter to PM Modi

Ravneet Singh Bittu had recently called Rahul Gandhi ‘number one terrorist.’

After Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to prime minister Narendra Modi complaining against recent statements by some BJP members against senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu, who started the controversy by calling Gandhi a ‘number one terrorist,’ said the ex-Congress chief remains a ‘Pappu’ (Hindi slang for stupid/childish).

Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu and Rahul Gandhi

“They (Congress) made him (Gandhi) the Leader of Opposition (in Lok Sabha). but ‘Pappu’, ‘Pappu’ hi raha.' Instead of lecturing others, Mallikarjun Kharge should teach his ‘Pappu'," Bittu told ANI on Tuesday.

Bittu added that his concerns were not as a politician, ‘but as a Sikh.’

Gandhi recently made a three-day visit to the United States, his maiden foreign trip as LoP, and made a series of comments that led to row in India. In one such remark, the Rae Bareli MP made a remark on the Sikh community.

"The fight is about whether a Sikh, will be allowed to wear a turban in India; or whether a Sikh, will be allowed to wear a kada in India; or whether a Sikh is allowed to go to a Gurdwara. That’s what the fight is about, and for all religions,” Gandhi stated at an event in Virginia.

On this, Bittu, who joined the BJP from the Congress in March, had said: “If those manufacturing bombs are supporting him (Gandhi), he is the number one terrorist. He does not love his country much because he goes abroad and says everything in a wrong way."

US-based pro-Khalistan outfit, Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), has backed Gandhi's statement.