Rahul Gandhi, BJP trade charges on Assam detention centres

Congress leader to address rally in Guwahati on Saturday.

Rahul Gandhi

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to address a rally in Guwahati — the epicentre of the nationwide protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act — on Saturday.

His visit will coincide with the foundation day of the Congress.

Mr. Gandhi’s rally will mark a break from the past when the party’s foundation day was celebrated at ts headquarters in Delhi and across the States.

In a tweet on Thursday, Mr. Gandhi attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks that there were no detention centres in the country, alleging that “RSS’s Prime Minister lies to Bharat Mata”. He posted a video clip of Mr. Modi’s address at the Ramlila Maidan last week where the PM had accused the Congress and its allies of being “urban Naxals” and spreading rumours that Muslims would be sent to detention centres. The video is joined with a clip from the BBC’s Hindi service on the detention centres in Assam.

“RSS’s Prime Minister lies to Bharat Mata,” Mr. Gandhi said in the tweet in Hindi with the hashtag #Jhoot Jhoot Jhoot [lies, lies, lies].

The BJP responded to Mr. Gandhi’s post by calling him

“jhoothon ka sardar (master of lies)”. The party said Mr. Gandhi was “obfuscating” the fact that detention camps for illegal migrants in Assam were set up when the Congress was in power both at the Centre and the State.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said at a press conference at the party headquarters in Delhi that Mr. Gandhi had used objectionable language, but that it was too much to ask for decency in public discourse from him.

Mr. Patra showed the official statement issued by the Congress-led UPA government in 2011 stating that detention centres had been set up in Assam.

“Rahul Gandhi is Jhoothon ka Sardar . The three detention centres were set up in Assam by his party which was in power both at the Centre and the State,” he said.