Shah mocks Rahul’s Vietnam trip

Union Minister of Home Affairs, Amit Shah, on Thursday mocked the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) for his absence from the political fray and said, “You won’t form Government for 30 years, based on your negative politics”. Rahul Gandhi is currently on a trip to Vietnam as the Congress and its allies protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.

“When I say the BJP will be in power for 30 years, they again reiterate allegations of vote theft... I want to tell you that Amit Shah was born here, stays here, and will die here... I don’t need to visit foreign countries every six months,” Shah said at the launch and inauguration of 33 Delhi Jal Board (DJB) projects worth Rs 8,941 crore, in outer Delhi. “Crores of BJP workers and Prime Minister Narendra Modi exist among the people, understand their concerns and work continuously to solve them,” he added.

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, State Cabinet ministers Parvesh Verma, Ashish Sood, State BJP president Harsh Malhotra and MP Ramvir Singh Bidhuri were also present.

He accused Rahul of gathering party cadres from other States to stage protests in the Capital and asserted that they could not reject the mandate given by the people to the BJP. Firing a fresh salvo at the LoP’s overseas visit, Shah said, “I know you can’t hear me; you are sitting somewhere abroad. You don’t even explain why, but that is okay, that is your personal life... But once you land in Delhi, listen to me; your turn won’t come for the next 30 years”.

He warned that the parties risk losing their remaining political ground unless they focus on governance. “You cannot use political jugglery and mobocracy to defy the mandate of the people. If you want to win elections, go among the people to understand their problems. These protests and demonstrations will not achieve anything. Implement schemes for people’s welfare wherever you have been elected, otherwise you will be wiped out from the remaining places,” Shah said.

The home minister hit out at the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over their allegations of vote theft and discrepancies in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, accusing them of using “political jugglery and mobocracy” to challenge the people’s mandate. The Congress and its allies, under the pretext of vote theft, want to protect infiltrators in the country, he charged, adding that these parties, despite making excuses — first Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) tampering and now vote theft — had been out of power in several states for decades.

“A new game has begun in Delhi. As BJP Governments are being elected, they are making excuses of vote chori. They say the BJP is not coming to power by popular vote but by vote theft. In reality, you want to save the votes of infiltrators by making these allegations of vote chori,” he said.

He cited the Congress’s electoral defeats across States over several decades, arguing that the party had been rejected by voters even before the BJP came to power nationally in 2014. He also pointed to the Opposition’s victories in Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana, arguing that the same EVMs and Election Commission of India (ECI) were in place when those parties won. “Whenever you lose, you criticise the Election Commission. When courts rule in your favour, they are good; otherwise, they are bad,” Shah said.

Shah said the Congress had been out of power in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh for 41 years, in West Bengal for 54 years and in Tamil Nadu for 64 years, while it had been unable to form full-majority governments in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh for 28 years.