New Delhi: Taking on Congress President Rahul Gandhi for his address “criticising” the Indian government from an international platform, senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday said that Mr Gandhi was spreading “hatred” among Indians with his speeches abroad like he did in the country.
The BJP said Mr Gandhi accused the government of spreading hate and terror, besides few other things that are normally not said at international forums but for the longest time, the politics of hate and communalism has been practised by the Congress itself.
Dubbing Mr Gandhi's speech made in Bahrain on Monday as “irresponsible”, Mr Prasad compared the Congress leader’s speech with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to 270 Indian origin (PIO) parliamentarians, focusing on boosting ties between India and other countries.
“The BJP strongly condemns Rahul Gandhi's irresponsible utterances.... He is spreading hatred among people,” said the Union minister while wondering if the Congress' stand on the triple talaq bill worked to spread love or hate in the society. He accused the Congress of failing to take a stand on an issue of woman’s respect and justice.
The senior BJP leader said Mr Gandhi's father and the then PM Rajiv Gandhi had committed a “sin” by passing a law under pressure from Muslim bodies to negate a Supreme Court order to provide alimony to Shah Bano after her husband divorced her. He said the same Muslim body is now opposing the triple talaq bill and claimed that the Congress’ decision to stall it in Rajya Sabha was a case of double standards influenced by vote bank politics.
He cited Mudra loans given to tens of millions of people, rise in road construction works and opening of call centres in tier two cities and said this has led to creation of employment as he refuted Mr Gandhi's charge that the government had not created enough jobs.
Mr Prasad also said that before comparing India with China and praising the latter, Mr Gandhi should have seen a report in an international magazine’s December issue, “which predicts that India would overtake China in growth” soon.
