With its former chief Rahul Gandhi coming under attack of the BJP over his comments in Kerala, the Congress on Wednesday sought to defend him saying the Wayanad MP had given a clarion call to the people to question the Government on real issues and the North-South divide was a “toolkit” being sold by the BJP to the public.
However, while former Union Minister Kapil Sibal said he was nobody to comment on what Rahul Gandhi has but still maintained “we must respect electors in the country and not denigrate their wisdom”, another former Minister Anand Sharma said only Rahul can clarify so that there’s no conjecture or misunderstanding.
The Congress alleged that the BJP was raising “superficial” issues on a daily basis to divert the country’s attention from the people’s issues. Several BJP leaders and union ministers accused Rahul Gandhi of being an ‘opportunist’ and alleged that he belittled north Indians during the speech delivered in Kerala.
Addressing a public gathering in Thiruvananthapuram, Rahul had said, “For the first 15 years, I was an MP in the north. I had got used to a different type of politics. For me, coming to Kerala was very refreshing as suddenly I found that people are interested in issues and not just superficially but going into detail in issues.”
Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, AICC chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala clarified that the former Congress president has given a clarion call to the people to question the government of the day, whether in the states or at the Centre, on issues paramount to people and to “ignore the superficial toolkit story being sold by the BJP day in and day out”.
“The North-South divide is a toolkit being adopted and sold by the BJP to the news channels and the public. Let us all rise and ensure that the governments of the day answer on issues and not on superficiality that they want to divert our attention to,” Surjewala said at AICC Press conference.