Rahul Gandhi's counter to a journalist "why do you always say what the BJP is saying" after he was asked about the ruling party's criticism of the Congress leader, evoked a sharp reaction on April 3 from the BJP which accused him of "attacking" the media again.
The former Congress president, who was walking into the Congress headquarters in New Delhi, was asked about the BJP's allegation that he tried to pressure the judiciary after he was joined by a large number of party leaders and workers while filing an appeal in a Surat court against his conviction in a defamation case on Monday.
Mr. Gandhi walked back to the media posse and asked, "Why do you always say what the BJP is saying? Every time you say what BJP is saying." "There is a very simple thing. Who owns the ₹20,000 crore in Adaniji's shell companies? It is 'benami'. Who owns it," Mr. Gandhi said, reiterating his allegations.
The Congress leader retorted when reporters asked him about the BJP charge that he tried to pressurise the judiciary by taking along a group of leaders to the Surat Session Court to file his appeal on Monday.
In a tweet later, Mr. Gandhi questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "silence" and asked why is he "frightened".' Targeting him, the BJP said that "insulting the country's backward classes and the media is Rahul Gandhi's mindset" and called him an "arrogant dynast".
"Rahul Gandhi has again attacked the fourth pillar of democracy. Insulting the country's backward classes and the media is Rahul Gandhi's mindset.
"He is following in the footsteps of his grandmother with his audacity to frequently attack the country's democratic system," BJP's chief spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni tweeted.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said, "Rahul is an arrogant dynast." Mr. Gandhi's snub to a journalist during a recent press conference had drawn flak after he was asked about the BJP's allegation of insulting OBCs with his "Modi surname" jibe.
Noting that the question was asked to him at the conference twice already, he had accused the reporter of working for the BJP and told him not to "pretend" to be a journalist.
Earlier in the morning, sidestepping a question on the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) allegation that the Congress was trying to put pressure on the judiciary after senion party leaders accompanied him to a Surat court, Mr. Gandhi said the 'real question' is about ₹20,000 crores that have been invested in the shell companies of the Adani group.
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“There is a very simple thing: ₹20,000 crore that’s in Adani ji’s shell companies, whose money is this? This is ‘benaami’ but whose money is it?”asked the Congress leader.
Mr. Gandhi made these comments while coming to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters to attend a meeting of the Central Election Committee that will finalise the candidates on the remaining seats for the upcoming Karnataka Assembly elections. Of the 224 seats, the party had announced 124 candidates while the others would be decided on Tuesday’s meeting.
A day after filing his appeal, Mr. Gandhi had also put up a 45 seconds video clip of his March 26 press conference on his social media handles with a message, ”No matter how many thousands times you try, these questions won’t stop”.
In the video, Mr. Gandhi asked, ”I have been disqualified because the Prime Minister is scared about my next speech in Parliament. They don’t want that speech in Parliament. That’s why first the distraction and then the disqualification”.
It’s not about OBC but about the relationship between the Prime Minister and [Gautam] Adani. ₹20,000 crore has suddenly arrived in Mr. Adani’s shell companies. Where has this come from and whose money is it?” he added.
