BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad censures Rahul's tirade, calls it his 'habit' to defame India

BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad censured Rahul Gandhi following his statement at Cambridge University, calling it his ‘habit’ to defame the nation on foreign grounds.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, former Union Minister Prasad said, "It has become Rahul Gandhi’s habit to go to foreign countries and insult Indian people and institutions, which hurts the confidence of the country."

Attacking the party for the political setback in the recent northeastern polls, he added, "After failing to even open its account in the Northeast, Rahul Gandhi goes to England, and is calling China a ‘symbol of bonafide’. It is very disappointing. At a time when G20 meetings are taking place in the country, foreign ministers of different countries have come here, the Italian PM is calling PM Modi the most popular leader in the world, and Rahul Gandhi is making these kinds of statements."

The BJP leader slammed the Wayanad MP for questioning the democratic integrity of India.

"It should be remembered that the very democratic process Rahul Gandhi is criticising is the same process through which he was able to win from Wayanad after fleeing from the loss in Amethi. Not just him, his mother has also become an MP through the same process. Recently, he made baseless allegations against the Prime Minister. Didn’t he have the freedom to do so? Also, he was able to do that despite being on bail in a corruption case. Not just him, his mother, and other family members are also out on bail for ‘looting’ the taxpayer’s money," Prasad added.

Following Gandhi’s affront on foreign soil, Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, took to Twitter to condemn the Congress leader.

What did Rahul Gandhi say?

During a lecture at Cambridge University, Rahul Gandhi unleashed a harsh attack on the Centre, claiming that an attempt is being made to demolish the fundamentals of Indian democracy. He further alleged that the Israeli spyware Pegasus was being used to snoop into his phone.

"I myself had Pegasus on my phone. A large number of politicians had Pegasus on their phones. I have been called by intelligence officers who told me, ‘Please be careful about what you are saying on the phone because we are sort of recording the stuff. So this is the constant pressure that we feel. cases on the opposition. I have a number of criminal liable cases for things that under no circumstances should be criminal liability cases. That’s what we are trying to defend. Everybody knows and it’s been in the news a lot that Indian democracy is under pressure and under attack. I am an opposition leader in India, and we are navigating that space. The institutional framework that is required for a democracy—Parliament, a free press, the judiciary, just the idea of mobilisation and moving around—is getting constrained. So, we are facing an attack on the basic structure of Indian democracy."

The Congress leader claimed that the Opposition leaders were locked up in jail for "just standing" in front of the Parliament House to discuss some issues and that such incidents have occurred "relatively violently" while sharing a photo of himself on the presentation slide in which he is seen being restrained by the police.