New Delhi: The BJP has changed tack: Smarting under Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Chowkidar Chor Hai’ tirade and unable to find an effective counter, it has decided to sully the name of Rajiv Gandhi by dubbing him as ‘Bhrashtachari number one’. Which in street language means, ‘tumhara baap sabse bada chor tha.’
“Your father was dubbed as Mr Clean by his courtiers, but his life ended as Bhrashtachari no 1,” PM Modi had said. Both Rahul Gandhi and sister Priyanka responded to the attack on their father and so did Mamata, Kejriwal and Akhilesh, all of them condemning the ‘low’ in political discourse.
In a measured response, Rahul said that PM Modi was just projecting his beliefs on to his father, Rajiv Gandhi, while adding that such accusations won’t shield him. Modi ji, the battle is over. Your Karma awaits you. Projecting your inner beliefs about yourself onto my father won’t protect you,” Rahul said in a tweet, concluding with his darling catchphrase: “All my love and a huge hug.”
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi also slammed Modi and said the people of Amethi would give a befitting reply to him for besmirching the image of an “honest and pure man”. “A Prime Minister who is seeking votes in the name of martyrs is insulting the sacrifice of an honest and innocent man with a baseless charge.
The people of Amethi for whom Rajiv Gandhi gave his life will answer this charge, Yes, Modiji, this country does not forgive frauds,” Priyanka tweeted. PM Modi was apparently referring to the Bofors case in which Rajiv Gandhi and others were accused of receiving bribes from the Swedish company. The Delhi High Court, however, ruled there was no evidence that Rajiv Gandhi had accepted bribes.
Earlier in the day, in a series of tweets, Union Minister P Chidambaram deamnded: Does Mr Modi know that a BJP government decided not to file an appeal to the SC against the HC judgment? Last year, when the CBI appealed for re-opening the case, the Supreme Court refused to allow it, saying it was 12 years too late.
Modi had claimed that Rahul had admitted in an interview that his only aim is to tarnish his image. “By hurling abuses, you cannot turn the 50 long years of Modi’s tapasya (struggle) into dust,” the prime minister had said. “By tarnishing my image and by making me look small, these people want to form an unstable and a weak government in the country,” he had said.
