Gandhi scion is trying to score brownie points, says opposition
The BJP on Sunday came down heavily on Rahul Gandhi saying that his controversial statement on the creation of Bangladesh has negated India’s age-old position of Pakistan being the aggressor.
By TNN |
NEW DELHI: The BJP on Sunday came down heavily on Rahul Gandhi saying that his controversial statement on the creation of Bangladesh has negated India’s age-old position of Pakistan being the aggressor.
BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley said Mr Gandhi’s statement showed that without understanding the depth of the issue and diplomatic niceties, the Congress leader was trying to “evolve as a street-corner politician looking for brownie points”.
Through the statement, Mr Jaitely said, Rahul Gandhi has undermined the role of patriotic Indians and the armed forced in the 1971 war. “If he is reminding us of the role of Nehru-Gandhi family, the Kashmir problem was a Nehruvian blunder; the Emergency was an Indira Gandhi blunder and the massacre of Sikhs in Delhi was the contribution of Rajiv Gandhi,” the BJP leader said.
The political friends of the Congress were quite worried over the fallout of the statement. A section of the UPA was of the view that while the Babri statement of Mr Gandhi alienated the Hindu-minded constituency in Uttar Pradesh, the latest statement may have the potential to invite the disaffection of Muslims.
This assessment is not off the mark as there was considerable unease over the dismemberment of Pakistan among the members of the Jamat-e-Islami Hind, the Tabligh Jamaat and the JUUH.
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The security agencies, which had accessed the minutes of the First Asian Islamic Conference at Karachi in 1978, had sumbitted a note to the government on the speeches made by Indian religious leaders who attended the meeting. At this meeting, these leaders claimed that there was “grief” over the dismemberment of Pakistan.The Left correctly read Rahul Gandhi’s statement as a faux pas and advised him to concentrate issues that are relevant to Uttar Pradesh. “He must speak on topical issues that confront the state of Uttar Pradesh. He is on an election campaign and he must speak on the misrule of the Mulayam Singh Yadav government,” CPI national secretary D Raja said.
Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh said Mr Gandhi was “trying hard to find a niche for himself”. The party can be expected to use the statement for polarisation of the electorate.
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