BJP: Rahul speech ‘rhetoric of a loser’

Vibha Sharma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 18

Launching a scathing counter against the Congress and its president Rahul Gandhi, the BJP on Sunday wondered how a party that questioned “the fundamental existence of Shri Ram” and made “a mockery of Hindu rituals and beliefs” could liken itself to Pandavas.

“Congress maha-manthan was nothing but fakery,” senior BJP leader and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman concluded while giving point-by-point rebuttal to charges made by Gandhi and other Congress at the party plenary against the BJP and its leadership.

It was “rhetoric of a loser”, she said, countering Congress’ allegations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and the government’s various policy decisions.

Recalling the two warring sides of the epic Mahabharata, Gandhi said the BJP, like Kauravas, fought for power, while his party, on lines of Pandavas, battled for truth.

“How do you respond to a factually incorrect statement that PM Modi is worried because BJP is losing elections? That is why I say it is rhetoric of a loser, with no substance,” she said.

Sitharaman also hit out at Gandhi for personal attack against the Modi and Shah, whom he called a “murder accused”.

“Name calling is not going to lead you anywhere. Sharing a surname was a crime,” she said in response to Gandhi’s attempts to link the PM with fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.

On the Congress president calling Shah a “murder accused,” she said: “He has been cleared by a court. This is a fake and false motivated campaign by someone who is out on bail on criminal conspiracy of fraud in National Herald case.”

Sitharaman also accused Congress of making a mockery of freedom fighters (Veer Savarkar), the judiciary and the media.