The BJP demanded an apology from the Congress over its senior party leader Shashi Tharoor’s remarks on External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s address to the United Nation’s General Assembly (UNGA) over the weekend.
Mr. Tharoor had termed Ms. Swaraj’s address as aimed at BJP’s voters and that it didn’t portray India in a good light.
“There is an unspoken rule in terms of the conduct of foreign policy in post-independence India, that Opposition and ruling party speak with one voice. The Congress has been consistently violating that norm in Opposition, while the BJP has kept to it. Increasingly we see a consonance between Pakistan’s views and that of the Congress, whereas the BJP has always supported the government of the day in foreign policy,” said BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi.
By “hewing to Pakistan’s line” , Mr. Trivedi said, “Rahul Gandhi’s Congress has lost its moral right to term itself Mahatma Gandhi’s Congress.”
“The Congress should reflect on Mr. Tharoor’s statement and tender an apology not just to the External Affairs Minister but to the entire nation,” he said.
Mr. Trivedi also said that the Congress’ appropriation of the freedom movement in its entirety was not correct.
“Mahatma Gandhi is the father of the nation, not just the father of the Congress party,” he said.
Mr. Trivedi said that while the Congress contributed to the freedom movement, it was not the only one.
“With the exception of Lala Lajpat Rai, which Congress leader was severely physically assaulted by the British colonial police, faced a life sentence in prison or hanged? In fact, in text books after independence, the Congress presided over framing of these other streams in the freedom movement as ‘extremism’ or even ‘terrorism’,” he said.
