BJP questions Congress' nationalism

AHMEDABAD: The Bharatiya Janata Party sought to corner the Congress on issues of nationalism and for personal attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as it posed a set of questions to its vice-president Rahul Gandhi on a host of issues.

Addressing a news conference in Ahmedabad on Friday, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Congress was prone to Freudian slips during elections and recounted its remarks against Modi.

“Congress leader and former diplomat Mani Shankar Aiyar had said during 2014 general elections that he (Modi) can come and sell tea. It changed the course of the elections. Now Congress has done the same thing... In 2007, Congress had called him maut ka saudagar,” Sitharaman said.

The minister said Congress had also raised questions about surgical strikes across the Kashmir border. The BJP leader alleged that in JNU, Rahul Gandhi supported those raising slogans for ‘breaking the country into a thousand pieces’, while a former UPA home minister said the demand for ‘azaadi’ from some sections in Kashmir was a demand for more autonomy.

Sitharaman criticised Rahul Gandhi for meeting the Chinese ambassador during the Army’s standoff in Dokalam and alleged that the Congress had called the Indian Army chief a street goonda. “Congress does not know where it stands ideologically,” Sitharaman claimed. BJP also questioned Rahul Gandhi and Congress on the National Herald issue.

“In 2012, Congress was rejected by the people of Gujarat for the fourth time. A responsible opposition party should introspect why people are not in favour of voting it to power,” Sitharaman said. The saffron party alleged that Congress MLAs were busy having fun in a Bengaluru resort when there were floods in north Gujarat a few months back.

Congress had herded its Gujarat MLAs to Bengaluru after it feared poaching by the BJP just before the Rajya Sabha poll which Ahmed Patel managed to scrape through despite some Congress MLAs cross-voting.