BJP President J P Nadda.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: In a sharp retort to the letter that he wrote to Prime Minister Modi complaining about the derogatory language of union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu and other leaders against Rahul Gandhi, BJP president J P Nadda has written a letter asking Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge under what compulsions was he trying to defend gandhi. He added that Gandhi has time and again insulted Modi as well as Other Backward Classes.
Nadda also alleged that Kharge was trying to “polish” a “failed product”. “You have written a letter to PM Modi in an attempt to polish your failed product, which has been repeatedly rejected by the public, and bring it to the market due to political compulsion. After reading that letter, I felt that the things said by you are far from reality,” Nadda wrote in his counter to Kharge.
On Wednesday, Kharge had written a letter to PM Modi urging him to discipline his party workers after Bittu had called Gandhi a “number one terrorist”. BJP Punjab MLA Tarvinder Singh Marwah had said that Gandhi will meet the fate of his father Rajiv Gandhi and grandmother Indira Gandhi, both former prime ministers who were assassinated.
In response, Nadda listed a bunch of complaints of his own. “Under what constraint are you trying to justify a person who called the Prime Minister and the entire OBC community thieves, used derogatory words against the PM, said in Parliament that the PM should be beaten with sticks and about whose fallen mentality the nation as a whole is aware,” he wrote.
Nadda also mentioned the “maut ka saudagar (merchant of death)” barb by Sonia Gandhi against Modi. “In the last 10 years, the Congress has showered the PM with 110 words of abuse, and the top leadership of the party has also been guilty of doing so,” Nadda’s letter read.
He also questioned what was there to be proud of Gandhi, and alleged that Gandhi “embraces anti-India and pro-Pakistan people”, “stands in solidarity with terrorists”, “asks for support from anti-national forces”, “talks about caste and reservation to divide society”, “recommends talks and trade with Pakistan and restoration of Article 370”, among a host of other complaints.
Calling it “a shameful attempt to distract from the serious threats” Gandhi’s life, Congress general secretary (communication) Jairam Ramesh said that the Congress was “shocked” by the “juvenile and shallow” letter. “Before attempting to bestow certificates of nationalism upon the Congress Party—a party whose leaders have laid down their lives for this nation—it would serve you well to first reflect on the party and ideology you represent. May you never forget that even before the tragic assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, your ideological forefathers were instrumental in cultivating an atmosphere of violence and hatred against Bapu,” Jairam said in his statement.
“It is no surprise that the leaders of BJP have made such abhorrent comments about Shri Rahul Gandhi when the Prime Minister himself - in his election campaigns - delivers a masterclass in divisive rhetoric, religious polarisation, and cheap vitriol,” he said, adding that the PM should “rise beyond petty politics” and condemn these actions so that “anti-India forces” are not emboldened.