BJP president Nadda accused Gandhi of having a history of assaulting Prime Minister Modi. (Photo: PTI)
The Congress on Thursday criticised BJP president JP Nadda’s reply to Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on the latter’s letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging “threats” against Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi as “immoderate” and “senseless”.
Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary and communications officer, hit out at Prime Minister Modi, saying there was once a prime minister who had responded to every official and personal letter sent to him for 17 years.
“Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh writes to non-biological PM about COVID-19. Health Minister gets insulting reply which he has to send on his behalf.
“Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge ji writes to the non-biological Prime Minister about the serious threats hurled by Mr Modi’s colleagues at Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi. The BJP president is tasked to send a boisterous and futile reply,” Ramesh said in a message on X.
“Once upon a time there was a Prime Minister who replied to every official and personal letter sent to him for 17 years – as is evident from over 100 volumes of his selected works,” Ramesh said, in an apparent reference to India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
“But self-proclaimed deities are different, I think,” the Congress leader added.
His comments came after BJP president Nadda accused Gandhi of insulting Prime Minister Modi and OBCs in the past and of siding with anti-India forces.
In his letter to Kharge, Nadda cited his party’s litany of complaints against the LoP and other Congress members for their choice of words against the prime minister.
“Under what duress are you trying to justify Rahul Gandhi?” the BJP leader asked his Congress colleague in a three-page letter written in Hindi.
He claimed that Kharge’s letter stemmed from his political urge to launch a “failed product” that had been repeatedly rejected by people.
On Tuesday, Kharge had raised with Prime Minister Modi the issue of “extremely offensive” and violent statements made by members of the ruling alliance against Rahul Gandhi and urged him to discipline his leaders.
In his letter to Modi, Kharge stated that strict legal action should be taken against those making such statements so that Indian politics could not degenerate and nothing sinister would happen.
“I would like to draw your attention to an issue which is directly related to democracy and the Constitution. You should be aware that a series of extremely offensive, violent and rude statements are being made against the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi,” the Congress leader said.
“I must say with sadness that the violent language used by the BJP leaders and their allies is detrimental to the future. The world is shocked that the Minister of State for Railways in the central government, a minister from BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, is calling the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha ‘terrorist number one’,” Kharge had said, apparently referring to remarks by MoS Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu and UP Minister Raghuraj Singh.
“An MLA of a party associated with your government in Maharashtra announces a reward of Rs 11 lakh for the person who ‘cuts off the tongue of the Leader of the Opposition and brings it to him’. A BJP leader and former MLA in Delhi threatens to ‘give him the fate of his grandmother’,” Kharge had said.
Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Gaikwad announced that he will give Rs 11 lakh to anyone who cuts off Gandhi’s tongue for his remarks on abolishing the reservation system.
Minister Bittu on Sunday said that if those “bomb makers” supported Gandhi, then he is the “number one terrorist”. Minister in the BJP government of UP, Raghuraj Singh, is said to have made similar remarks to Bittu’s.
Earlier, BJP leader Tarvinder Singh Marvah was alleged to have made “threatening” remarks against Gandhi.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First publication: Sep 19, 2024 | 12:24 PM IST