The BJP and Congress engaged in a war of words on Sunday over MP Shashi Tharoor’s remarks at a Lahore event as the ruling party accused him of “degrading and discrediting” India and wondered if Rahul Gandhi wanted to participate. in the elections in Pakistan. Fighting back, the opposition party said the BJP has always responded to substance and deeds with “jumlebaazi” (rhetoric).
The BJP attacked Tharoor after he posted a link to comments made online at Lahore Think Fest, which his office said took place last month, in which he criticized Modi’s government’s handling of the coronavirus and he also spoke of alleged “bigotry and prejudice” against Muslims during the pandemic. BJP spokesman Sambit Patra told reporters that it was “unbelievable” that a high-ranking leader of Congress and a MP like Tharoor could make such remarks against India in a Pakistani forum.
“It has degraded India and cast the country in low light,” said Patra. Referring to Tharoor’s comments that Rahul Gandhi had warned of the severity of COVID-19 as early as February and that he should get credit for it, Patra claimed that the Kerala MP was a close friend of the former president of Congress and wondered if Gandhi wanted to get credit in Pakistan and contest the polls there.
He is already a “hero” in China and Pakistan, Patra claimed. At a press conference, congressional spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said such reactions from the ruling party “ridicule” the debate and “undermine us as a democracy.”
“The BJP has always responded to substance and fact with ‘jumlebaazi.’ The BJP has always believed in rhetoric, not substance.” Yes, sometimes it catches you by the eyes or the headphones when you listen to it, but in seconds, logic takes over and tells you how empty the rhetoric is that the BJP is indulging in, “he said.
If someone praises a particular achievement or points to a particular area of activity “in which you are lagging behind in India, and asking that person to stand in the Pakistani elections is to ridicule the debate and disparage us as a democracy,” he said. . . “All that is being done is to point out that you are a much stronger country, much bigger, much more capable, and yet you should not be left behind in this parameter,” added the congressional spokesman.
Patra claimed that the Union government had imposed a timely lockdown, noting that India has a high recovery rate and a very low mortality rate in the world, and praised its handling of the pandemic. He also referred to Tharoor’s comments about Northeast Indian nationals sometimes facing trouble in other parts of the country to target Congress.
“What was the need to discuss such issues in a Pakistani forum? There is no country in this world as democratic and just as India,” he said. Patra referred to various comments made by congressional leaders in the past that allegedly targeted the Modi government at events in Pakistan and asked if members of the opposition party had ever asked Pakistan on its forum about its “intolerance and violence.” against minorities in that country.
In a blow to Gandhi, Patra said that he and the BJP will now call him “Rahul Lahori”.
Singhvi, in his reaction, also pointed to the recent debate on the possibility of Bangladesh taking over India in terms of GDP per capita and asked if the correct answer is that it should stand for the Dhaka elections and not be in the Indian Parliament. .
“These responses may be short-lived, a few seconds of usefulness, but they actually show the emptiness of his brainpower to deal in areas where he is a complete failure,” he said, pointing to the BJP. At the event, Tharoor was asked by a Pakistani journalist how the Indian government’s political fortunes were affected by the rising numbers of COVID.
He said it was paradoxical as the government was “not doing well” in dealing with the pandemic and people realize that, but polls suggest it has not politically hurt the BJP as it should. “So we in the opposition pointed out, for example, that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had already mentioned in February that COVID should be taken more seriously than the government was taking it and that preventive measures should be implemented immediately. Otherwise you will not face both a health disaster and an economic catastrophe if this is allowed to run uncontrollably.
“So I should get credit for pointing this out from the beginning …” Tharoor said. He also said that there was a contrast between the way the COVID numbers have worked out in the two countries, India and Pakistan, but the fate of the leaders has not gone the same way.
“They both seem to be doing quite well in the public eye, which, for some of us in the opposition in India, remains a mystery, but we don’t talk about it outside of India. We fight our battles at home,” he He said.
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