The Bharatiya Janata Party continued its tirade against Rahul Gandhi, comparing the Congress leader with Mir Jafar, who betrayed his king Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last Nawab of Bengal, and took East India Company’s help to defeat him to fulfill his ambitions to become the ruler.
“Rahul Gandhi is today’s, Mir Jafar! Just like Mir Jafar took help from East India Company to become Nawab, Rahul Gandhi is seeking ‘help’ from foreign nations as part of his shameful agenda,” said BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra in a press conference ahead of the Parliament session on Tuesday.
Mir Jafar served as the commander of the Bengali army under Siraj ud-Daulah, but betrayed him during the Battle of Plassey and ascended to the masnad after the British victory in 1757.
He reiterated BJP’s demand for Gandhi’s apology in Parliament for alleging that democracy is under attack in India and that foreign powers must intervene.
“It would not be an aberration to say that Rahul Gandhi is the present-day Mir Jafar of Indian Polity. ‘Aakhir, Shehzada Nawab ban na chahta hai!’ This draws an analogy with India’s history about what Mir Jafar did to become Nawab. He took help from the East India Company to fulfill his motives. History repeats itself! This present day’s Mir Jafar must apologize,” Patra said.
Patra also said that the Wayanad MP has drawn an objectionable similarity between Indian institutions with Pakistan’s ISI. “It’s utterly shameful that Rahul Gandhi termed the pillar of institutions of democracy in India as ‘Deep States’. He drew a ‘similarity’ between Indian institutions with Pakistan’s ISI. Indian Media, Judiciary, he said, were constrained. Rahul Gandhi, through his remarks, has given an open invitation to foreign countries to come and ‘protect’ the democracy in India. Mani Shankar Aiyar and Rahul Gandhi are doing the same thing; both are defaming India,” Patra added.
Patra also raked up the recent viral video of Rahul Gandhi in which he is seen being tutored by Congress senior leader Jairam Rames on how to rephrase his sentences uttered during press conference lest it becomes a matter of joke. Gandhi said, “Unfortunately I am an MP” during a presser, which Ramesh pointed out could become the butt of jokes.
“Rahul Gandhi doesn’t know what to say. He speaks only with the help of Jairam Ramesh. He himself said that ‘unfortunately I am an MP,” said Patra.
In a lecture at Cambridge University in London Rahul Gandhi recently said, “Everybody knows and it’s been in the news a lot that Indian democracy is under pressure and under attack. I am an Opposition leader in India, we are navigating that (Opposition) space.”
Meanwhile, the logjam in the Parliament’s second leg of the Budget Session continued with Congress and other parties continuing to demand the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the allegations of stock manipulation against Adani Group.