‘Could have cut short foreign visit to meet Wangchuk’: NDA on Rahul Gandhi’s remarks

New Delhi: The NDA leaders on Sunday launched a scathing attack on Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, saying that if the latter was really concerned about climate activist Sonam Wangchuk, he could have “midway returned from his foreign trip to meet the agitator”.

This comes a day after LoP Gandhi, in a post on X, accused the BJP-led Centre of “Asatya (lies) and Hinsa (violence)” over Sonam Wangchuk’s hospitalisation following deterioration in his health, resulting from 20 days of hunger strike at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.

Speaking to IANS, Union Minister Giriraj Singh said: “The entire country and the world knows that Rahul Gandhi believes in dynastic politics. He is a symbol of dynastic politics. He thinks that no one outside the Nehru family has the right to do politics.”

“(He thinks) how can someone who used to sell tea, that too belonging from a backward caste, remain as Prime Minister? That is his (Gandhi’s) pain. He thinks that only the Nehru family has the right to rule over India,” Singh remarked.

“Rahul Gandhi speaks against India and abuses the country as well as the Prime Minister during his foreign visits,” the Union Minister alleged.

BJP national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said: “Sonam Wangchuk was at Jantar Mantar, and Rahul Gandhi was in Europe. When Wangchuk was on hunger strike, Rahul Gandhi could have cut short his Europe visit to meet him. He did not even go to meet him. Even after returning, he went to Uttarakhand and is now covering up because people are asking why he did not go.”

Further, Hussain asserted that only Sonam Wangchuk’s location has been changed, due to his health condition and according to the instructions of the High Court. “He has been admitted to the hospital because the government is concerned about his health,” the BJP leader said.

JD(U) MLA Shyam Rajak criticised the Congress, saying: “Who was in power in 1974? Who was in power during Operation Blue Star in Punjab? These are the people who stayed in power through violence. They ruled by using violence, sending people like us to jail and killing many others. Now they are accusing those who believe in Mahatma Gandhi and those who are working through non-violent means of promoting violence.”

He accused the Congress leaders of being “authoritarian”.

“They (Congress) even consider authoritarianism to be democracy,” he told IANS.

However, Congress spokesperson Surendra Rajput came in defence of LoP Gandhi’s remarks, saying that the voices of students across the country won’t be suppressed.

“The Congress…Rahul Gandhi and Sonam Wangchuk are all fighting for them (students). Removing Sonam Wangchuk forcefully is against democracy and against the democratic spirit,” he told IANS.

He added: “If the BJP is so sympathetic towards Wangchuk, then it should speak to him and seek the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan (over NEET paper leak).”

IANS