Rahul Gandhi is a politician with pathetic, casteist mindset and big ego but has little understanding of public issues, said BJP chief JP Nadda on Friday while reprimanding the Congress leader for not apologising to the OBC community for his ‘Modi thieves’ remark.
For uninitiated, Gandhi has been awarded a two-year jail term by a court in Surat, Gujarat in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his remarks about the prime minister’s surname. “How come all thieves have the Modi surname?” Gandhi had said at a rally during the 2019 general elections in Karnataka’s Kolar.
BJP termed Gandhi’s anti-Modi remark as an insult to the OBCs under which the Modi community falls.
In a series of tweets, Nadda said that Gandhi and his party Congress are so “arrogant” that they are “not saying sorry after hurting the sentiments of the OBC community”.
“By comparing OBC communities to thieves, Mr @RahulGandhi has shown a pathetic and casteist mindset. However, his latest tirade is not surprising. For the last many years he has always reduced levels of political discourse,” the BJP national president tweeted.
In a thread, Nadda mentioned Gandhi’s “cooked-up” Rafale scam tirade and his “chowkidar chor hai’ remark.
“Lies, personal slander and negative politics is integral to Mr. @RahulGandhi. Let us go back to the time before 2019 – he was the newly minted Congress President and through the pre-election season his core issue was – cooked up Rafale scam. Wherever he went he spoke of it. Mr. @RahulGandhi’s negative politics and cooked up Rafale scam faced a setback in the court of law.”
Referring to the Supreme Court verdict on the alleged Rafale scam, Nadda said the highest court of the land “did not believe the corruption bogey Mr. Gandhi raised”.
“Mr. @RahulGandhi’s acerbic Chowkidar Chor Hai remarks were also not appreciated by the Supreme Court and for that HE APOLOGIZED. In the run up to 2019 polls, @RahulGandhi kept repeating – Chowkidar Chor Hai notwithstanding the harm he was doing to political discourse,” Nadda said.
“He went on ranting against PM @narendramodi even if it meant he was defeated in his own seat and his party wiped out nationally. So much for Chowkidar Chor Hai that neither Congress leaders nor Congress allies appreciated this deep slander against PM @narendramodi. Infact, this issue was also taken up in CWC where the senior Congress leaders even supposedly expressed their unhappiness on it.”
The BJP president said that people have not forgiven the Wayanad MP for his comments against PM Modi and will further give severe punishment in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“Now, Mr. @RahulGandhi calls the entire OBC community thieves. He gets a flak in the Courts but he refuses to apologise thus showing how deep rooted his hatred for OBCs is. The people of India did not forgive him in 2019…in 2024 the punishment will be more severe,” concluded.
Gandhi is facing seven defamation cases, including two cases for his anti-Modi remark, and is also an accused in the National Herald case.
Several complaints were filed against the then Congress president for his “Modi thieves” remark in different parts of the country. The court has delivered its verdict in a case filed by BJP leader Purnesh Modi. The court, however, granted bail to Gandhi to file an appeal before a higher court within 30 days.