Wondering whether Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on a “secret operation”, the BJP on Thursday targeted him for his “frequent” foreign visits and accused him of not informing Parliament about his tours as was mandated by the protocol meant for the MPs.
Maintaining that Rahul’s frequent foreign visits were a matter of public interest as he was a public representative, BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao claimed that the Congress leader had travelled abroad on 16 occasions in the last five years, which was more than the number of his visits to Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, which used to be his Lok Sabha constituency.
Addressing a press conference at the party office here, Rao said, “This is also one of the reasons the people of Amethi rejected him (Rahul). Of the 16 visits (abroad), on nine occasions, the destination was not known.
“Why was it not revealed? Was he involved in some secret operation?,” he asked.
Rahul lost the parliamentary polls held in April-May from Amethi, a stronghold of the Congress. But former Congress president was elected to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad in Kerala, the second Lok Sabha seat he contested from with a big margin.
Rao quoted from a letter written by the Parliamentary Affairs Minister on July 3 to inform the members of Parliament about the norms for them.
The Minister had informed the members that they should, in advance, inform Parliament of their foreign visits, even if those were purely for private purposes, he said. Rao claimed that the Lok Sabha secretariat had not received any information from the Congress leader about his foreign visits.
Taking a swipe at the former Congress chief, Rao said the entire world came to India for meditation but he was travelling abroad frequently.
He also questioned as who footed the bill for Rahul’s foreign tours.