Sambit Patra said that Rahul Gandhi is already a “hero” in China and Pakistan. (Proceedings)
New Delhi:
The BJP attacked the Congressional party following statements by MP Shashi Tharoor at a Lahore event, accusing him of “degrading and discrediting” India.
Responding, Congress said that the BJP has always responded to substance and facts 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 the handling of the coronavirus by the US-led government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also spoke of alleged “intolerance and prejudice” against Muslims during the pandemic.
BJP spokesman Sambit Patra said it was “unbelievable” that a congressional leader and a deputy like Tharoor could make such remarks against India in a Pakistani forum. “It has degraded India and cast the country into gloom,” said Patra.
Referring to Tharoor’s comments that Rahul Gandhi had warned about the severity of COVID-19 as early as February and that he should get credit for it, Patra said the Kerala MP was a close friend of the former president of Congress and asked if Gandhi he wanted to get credit in Pakistan and contest the polls there.
He is already a “hero” in China and Pakistan, Patra claimed.
Congressional spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said such reactions from the ruling party “ridicule” the debate and “debase us as a democracy.”
“The BJP has always responded to substance and pointed to the facts with ‘jumlebaazi‘. The BJP has always believed in rhetoric, not substance. Yes, sometimes it grabs you by the eyes or the headphones when you listen to it, but in seconds logic takes over and tells you how empty the BJP rhetoric is, “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 said that the government had imposed a timely lockdown, noting that India has a high recovery rate and a very low mortality rate in the world, as he praised its handling of the pandemic.
He also referred to Tharoor’s comments about residents of the Northeast region who sometimes face problems 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 government of Prime Minister Modi at events in Pakistan and asked if members of the opposition party had ever asked Pakistan in their forum about their ” intolerance and violence “against minorities in that country. .
In a blow to Rahul Gandhi, Mr. Patra said that he and the BJP will now call him “Rahul Lahori”.
Mr Singhvi cited 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 in 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, Mr. Tharoor was asked by a Pakistani journalist how the Indian government’s political fortunes were affected by the increasing number 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-19 had to be taken more seriously than the government was taking it and that preventive measures should be taken against immediately. We would face both a health disaster and an economic catastrophe if this were allowed to run uncontrollably. Therefore, he should be given credit for pointing this out early on … “Tharoor had said.
He also said that there was a contrast between the way the coronavirus figures have worked in the two countries, India and Pakistan, but the fate of the leaders has not gone in the same contrasting 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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