'Under what compulsion...': JP Nadda takes 'failed product' jibe at Rahul Gandhi in letter to Mallikarjun Kharge

BJP president JP Nadda on Thursday accused Rahul Gandhi of having a history of abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and OBCs, and of siding with anti-India forces, days after the opposition party charged ruling alliance members with using violent language against the Leader of the Opposition.

In a tit-for-tat response after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge wrote to Modi over some members of the BJP-led NDA using "extremely objectionable" statements against Gandhi, Nadda cited his party's own litany of complaints against the LoP and other Congress members for their choice of words against the PM. 

Nadda said Gandhi has a history of calling the entire Other Backward Classes, including the PM, a "thief" and using extremely indecent words against Modi. "Under what compulsion are you trying to justify Rahul Gandhi," the BJP president asked his Congress counterpart in a three-page letter written in Hindi.

He claimed that Kharge's letter was driven by his political compulsion to market a "failed product" repeatedly rejected by people. He told the Congress president, "Your comments are far from truth. It appears from your letter that you have either forgotten the misdeeds of Gandhi and other leaders or have deliberately ignored them." 

Kharge had on Tuesday raised with Modi the issue of "extremely objectionable" and violent statements by ruling alliance members targeting Gandhi and urged him to discipline his leaders. In his letter, the Congress leader demanded that strict legal action should be taken against those giving such statements so that Indian politics can be prevented from degenerating and nothing untoward happens.

The world is shocked that a Union minister and a minister from Uttar Pradesh are calling Gandhi "number one terrorist", while a Shiv Sena MLA announced a reward of Rs 11 lakh to the person who "cuts off the tongue of the Leader of the Opposition and brings it to him", he had said. Hitting back, Nadda said Gandhi had once spoken of people "beating up" Modi with a baton, betraying his "disrespectful" mindset.

His mother Sonia Gandhi, he added, had once called Modi, then Gujarat chief minister, "maut ka saudagar", he added.

He told Kharge in his letter, "You and your party leaders kept glorifying such unfortunate and shameful comments. Why had the Congress then forgotten about political probity?" In a swipe, Nadda said it might be Kharge's compulsion to defend a failed product and even glorify it, but as the Congress president, he should have introspected as well.

He claimed that Congress leaders in the last 10 years have abused Modi 110 times, accusing the opposition party of double standards. Nadda alleged no leader in the history of independent India was "insulted" as much as Modi was by Congress leaders, citing several objectionable remarks used for the PM over the years.

The BJP president asked if the Congress feels proud of Gandhi because he pallies with anti-India and pro-Pakistan forces, and seeks foreign intervention in Indian democracy. He alleged that Gandhi has repeatedly insulted the Hindu Sanatan culture, sought evidence of the armed forces' bravery, and used controversial remarks about Sikhs.

Naming Congress leaders like Sam Pitroda, Shashi Tharoor, Digvijay Singh, P Chidambaram, K Suresh, and Imran Masood, Nadda claimed that Congress leaders did everything to defame the country. Congress leaders instigated people and regions against each other and pro-Pakistan slogans were raised in their programmes, he alleged.

He said, "If anyone has defamed and insulted the Indian democracy the most, it is the Congress party." Nadda cited the imposition of Emergency, the Congress' alleged support to triple talaq, and claimed that the Congress is selling the poison of casteism and anti-national content from its so-called "mohabbat ki dukan".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DNA staff and is published from PTI)

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