NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday trained its guns at the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over his criticism of the ruling party in Texas. The Congress leader is on a three-day trip to US, where he said that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) looks at India as one idea while Congress thinks of India as a multiplicity of many ideas.
In a sharp retort, Union minister Giriraj Singh reacted to Rahul’s remarks and accused him of going abroad only to defame India, saying that a ‘traitor’ cannot understand RSS and said that Rahul will have to take many births to understand the values and culture of the organisation.
“If there is any technology to go to his grandmother and ask her about the role of RSS, then go and ask or look in the pages of history. To know about RSS, Rahul Gandhi will have to take many births. A traitor cannot understand RSS. Those who go abroad and criticize the country cannot know RSS,” Singh said.
“It seems that Rahul Gandhi goes abroad only to defame India. Rahul Gandhi will not be able to understand RSS in this birth. RSS is born from the values and culture of India,” he added.
Giriraj also asserted that the country has rejected the grand old party under the leadership of ‘Yuvraj’ Rahul Gandhi for the third time in the Lok Sabha elections.
“The people of the country rejected Congress for the third time under the leadership of ‘Yuvraj’ Rahul Gandhi. India which used to import defence, in the form of ‘Make in India’ is now exporting it. India which used to import Rs 19 lakh crores in the country has reached Rs 80 lakh crores today,” Singh said.
“Instead of praising India, he is going abroad and abusing India and praising China, praising the enemy country. It seems like he is thriving on China’s money, and they are going abroad and branding China. If PM Modi did not protect the Constitution, cases of treason should be registered against such people who go outside India and criticize India,” he added
BJP national spokesperson Nalin Kohli also advised Rahul to choose his words in a manner that gives a complete picture. He also alleged that Rahul does not want to associate himself with anything that is part of the country’s glorious past.
“Rahul Gandhi is the leader of the opposition of the world’s largest democracy so he has to choose his words in a manner that gives the complete correct picture. It is strange that he always finds some good examples of China and never finds a reason to look at it from India’s point of view about what all has happened in terms of the relationship between India and China. He finds fault with the parliament’s functioning and refers to it as a war zone. He fails to inform people that the opposition parties led by him somehow look for an opportunity or an excuse to disrupt parliament,” Kohli said.
“He raises questions about the RSS and its history. But he won’t inform the rest of the world that India’s history was taught in a skewed manner right up to PM Modi’s government…He wouldn’t even be seen on International Day of Yoga which is now observed across the world…It’s almost as if Rahul Gandhi does not want to associate himself with anything that is part of India’s glorious past. He has much to answer. It cannot be on a script given to him and then he would go out and tarnish India’s image,” he added.
Earlier on Monday, Rahul said that the fear of the BJP and the Prime Minister Modi had vanished among the people of India immediately after the announcement of the Lok Sabha election results earlier this year.
“The other thing that happened that was very beautiful, that in fact, I was amazed that it happened so quickly was that fear of the BJP vanished, disappeared, gone and we saw that immediately. Within minutes of the election result, nobody in India was scared of the BJP or the Prime Minister of India,” Rahul said.
Rahul also talked about what he thinks is the difference in the idea of India between the RSS and the Congress party. He said, “The RSS believes that India is one idea and we believe that India is a multiplicity of ideas and we believe by the way, very much like the United States, we believe that everybody should be allowed to participate.”
“Every single word that I said to you is in the Constitution. The foundation of modern India is the Constitution and what people understood in the election clearly and I saw it happening when I used to raise the constitution like this, people understood what I was saying. They were saying that the BJP is attacking our tradition, attacking our language, attacking our states, attacking our histories, and most importantly, what they understood was that anybody who is attacking the Constitution of India is also attacking our religious tradition,” he added.
Rahul arrived in Dallas, Texas, for a three-day US visit. The Congress MP was welcomed at the airport by Sam Pitroda, chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, and members of the Indian diaspora.