Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, March 17
The BJP on Friday mounted its fiercest-ever offensive against Rahul Gandhi with party president JP Nadda personally leading the attack, accusing the Congress MP of being a “permanent part of the anti-India toolkit” and describing his “call to Europe and the US to take note of India’s democratic decline as an assault on India’s sovereignty”.
K’taka: Cong CEC meets
Amid the ongoing political war, the Congress central election committee (CEC) chaired by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge met on Friday in New Delhi to pick candidates for the upcoming Karnataka polls.
Nadda, who arrived in Karnataka today for a two-day election campaign, said Gandhi’s comments were the “most serious issue in independent India’s democratic history”.
Cong hits back
They (BJP people) are anti-nationals. Even at the time of Independence, they did not participate in the freedom struggle. Those who are themselves anti-nationals are calling others anti-national. Mallikarjun Kharge, Cong president
“Anti-India forces have always had problems with a powerful country, a strong democracy and a decisive government. Unfortunately, the oldest political party of the country, the Congress, has also joined hands with these forces. After being repeatedly rejected by the country, Rahul Gandhi has become a permanent part of this anti-national toolkit,” Nadda said in a statement.
The BJP launched a fresh campaign in the poll-bound state, floating a Twitter hashtag “anti-national Congress” and fielding top leaders to target Gandhi. Union Minister Smriti Irani, who was in Hubbali, said “anti-national Congress should not get a single vote”.
MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan, at a roadshow in Vijayanagar, said he suspected Rahul’s patriotism. “No patriot would say things that he said in the UK,” he said. Nadda, who addressed two rallies in Chitradurga, alleged some foreign powers were conspiring to weaken India.
