Rahul faces flak from BJP over anti-India remarks

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday drew flak from top BJP leaders who charged him with being “anti-India and pro-Pakistan”. The ruling party at the Centre also attacked Congress Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and did not spare UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi by blaming her for ruining the tenure of Manmohan Singh.

BJP president Nitin Nabin accused Rahul of taking foreign trips without notifying central security agencies, while Union Minister Piyush Goyal claimed the Congress leader and his party are “compromised” and spreading “falsehoods” to undermine the country’s progress for anti-India interests.

Nabin charged the Leader of Opposition with being on a “compromised mission” that began with his great-grandfather and first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and “continued through generations”. The BJP president’s comments come amid a row over the Indian Youth Congress activists staging a shirtless protest at the AI Summit in Delhi last week, with the slogan “PM is compromised”, an allusion to the proposed trade deal with the US, allegedly under pressure from the Donald Trump administration.

“Today, I intend to reveal the compromised mission of the Nehru-Gandhi family, which has exchanged national interests for personal gains. I want to unmask Rahul Gandhi, who is strutting about like a Babbar Sher (lion),” said the 45-year-old Bihar MLA, who became BJP president a month ago.

Nabin raked up Nehru’s alleged reference to the country’s burgeoning population as a “liability” and the defeat in the 1962 war with China, and charged Indira Gandhi with “giving up Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, after defeating Pakistan in 1971” as examples of the “compromised mission”.

He also alleged that Rajiv Gandhi, the father of Rahul and a former Prime Minister, had made use of the Bofors gun deal to “fatten up his personal bank balance”.

“The compromised mission continued under Rahul’s mother Sonia Gandhi, who functioned as a ‘super prime minister’ from 2004 to 2014, compromising the authority of the top constitutional post,” the BJP president asserted.

Nabin slammed Rahul Gandhi for “undertaking 247 foreign visits, without informing security agencies back home”.

Addressing a Press conference at the BJP headquarters, Goyal alleged that Gandhi and the Congress are playing “petty politics” to “weaken, hurt and destabilise” the country’s economy and its progress.

“He is nothing but a puppet of anti-India forces, anti-India organisations and anti-India Governments. The Gandhi family is a completely compromised family and the Congress a completely compromised political party,” the Union Minister said.

The Minister’s attack came in the backdrop of the Congress attacking the Prime Minister over the India-US interim trade deal, calling it a “wholesale surrender” and “betrayal” of national interest.

Goyal rejected the Congress leader’s claim as “falsehood” and accused him of misleading people to destroy the country’s interest at the behest of anti-national forces.

Goyal alleged that the Gandhi family has always compromised the country’s interests, starting with the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.

While Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi compromised with India’s interest in running the Manmohan Singh government as “super PM” through the National Advisory Council, Rajiv Gandhi also did not remain behind in compromising the country’s interest during his term as the prime minister, he alleged.

“We all know how attempts were made to stop investigations into the Bofors scandal... A fair probe was not allowed to happen to save Ottavio Quattrocchi (accused in the Bofors scam),” he added.

“Former US Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan confirmed that the CIA provided funds to Congress for elections. The Mitrokhin Archives mentions that the KGB delivered suitcases full of money to a compromised Indira Gandhi,” he charged.

“In the 1971 Shimla Agreement, 93,000 Pakistani soldiers were released without securing PoK. What forces were exerting pressure on Indira Gandhi that led to a compromise of national interest?” Goyal said.

The BJP leader alleged that Nehru also “repeatedly compromised” national interests when he was the prime minister.

Goyal alleged that in 1954, India’s interests were compromised before China on Tibet and under the Panchsheel Agreement, Aksai Chin was ceded to China during Nehru’s tenure.