Rahul Gandhi hits back at Subramanian Swamy's allegations; says not scared of Modi or his government

NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi hit back over the ‘citizenship row’ raised by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy by daring Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order an inquiry against him (Gandhi) and jail him if he is proved guilty.

Maintaining that he is “not going to be scared”, Gandhi said instead of letting “cronies” sling mud at him, Modi should face him “with his 56-inch chest”. The Congress vice-president also sent out a warning to the NDA regime ahead of the winter session of Parliament, saying his party will not let “any anti-poor legislation” through. Gandhi also underlined his admiration for the “wisdom and experience” of the Congress old guard.

Indirectly referring to Swamy’s allegation, Gandhi said: “Ever since I was a child, I have been watching people from the RSS and BJP slinging mud at my grandmother, my father and even my mother… Modiji, it is your government. You have the agencies. Get a probe done against me and send me behind bars if you find something incriminating.

Stop slinging mud at me and my family through your cronies… I have not even an iota of fear. I will continue to fight for the poor.” His combative speech at a Youth Congress function to mark Indira Gandhi’s 98th birth anniversary was cheered by party supporters. Though he did not directly mention Swamy by name, Gandhi was clearly referring to Swamy’s demand that Gandhi be stripped of Indian citizenship over documents filed by his erstwhile company mentioning him as a ‘British citizen’.