New Delhi: Describing Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s remarks against Union minister Sushma Swaraj as “immature politics”, the BJP on Friday demanded that he either apologise or a criminal defamation case would be filed against him.
The party maintained that Congress leaders not only defamed Ms Swaraj but defamed the “foreign minister of the country, who is the representative of India in the world”. The ruling party also accused the Congress leader of practising the politics of “spit and run” and “crossing all limits of decency” in his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Speaking on the Lalit Modi controversy, Mr Gandhi had said that there would be no discussion in Parliament without Ms Swaraj’s resignation. “...Sushma has done a criminal act. He (Lalit Modi) is a fugitive. You have signed it (the recommendation for grant of travel document). The high commission does not know about it. The Indian government too is unaware of that,” Mr Gandhi had said.
Reacting to the remarks, Union minister Nitin Gadkari warned, “If Rahul does not apologise, then it is a serious problem. We will have to file a criminal defamation case against him.” He also said that Mr Gandhi using these words were “very unfortunate and undemocratic”.
He stressed that the allegations against Ms Swaraj were “baseless” and that she had not violated the law or the Constitution.
Another Union minister, Mr Prakash Javadekar, said. "It’s irresponsible and immature from the leader of a national party to speak of the Prime Minister in such language. He has crossed all limits of decency in public life. His new strategy is spit and run. It won’t work. People are more mature than this. The BJP is particularly peeved with Mr Gandhi over his recent jibe at Mr Modi over the contentious land bill, saying people will reduce his 56-inch (chest) to 5.6 inch."
