Rahul Gandhi, senior Congress leader and United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate in the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, on Monday took on Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan asking why the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are not attacking the latter in the same way he is being targeted.
The former Congress president and Wayanad MP was addressing an election campaign rally organised by the UDF at the Kozhikode beach in the evening. Indirectly replying to Mr. Vijayan’s allegation that the Congress party and Mr. Gandhi were silent on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act [CAA], he said that the party would never decide citizenship on the basis of caste or religion.
“I attack the RSS and the BJP, and I have been doing it relentlessly. 24x7 they are after me. I spend 55 hours being interrogated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). After I gave a speech in Parliament, the BJP had me removed. I was reinstated by the Supreme Court. They took away my house... I have not wavered from attacking the RSS and the BJP. Because it is an ideological battle that I fight,” he said. However, Mr. Gandhi pointed out that whenever someone attacked the BJP, it attacked them back.
“The Central Bureau of Investigation and the ED go after them. Their [Parliament] membership is taken away. Their houses are taken away. My question is why is the BJP not attacking the Chief Minister of Kerala? Why are they not taking away his house, taking away his chief ministership, putting court cases on him, getting him interrogated by the ED?”, he asked. Referring to former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Mr. Gandhi pointed out that “after all, two chief ministers are in jail today”.
“When the BJP is destroying the Constitution, attacking democracy, destroying the institutions, dividing India, why is the Chief Minister of Kerala attacking me 24X7? I am happy he is attacking me. But, he should also spend a little bit of time attacking the BJP, [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi, and the RSS,” the Congress leader said. Mr. Gandhi said that the Congress would never decide citizenship on the basis of caste, religion, or language. “We will decide citizenship based on the idea of India, nothing else,” he claimed.
Earlier, Mr. Gandhi alleged that Mr. Modi’s only quest was to be in power, at all costs. He claimed that the electoral bond scheme was a scam organised and conceptualised by the Prime Minister. He accused the BJP of taking the entire wealth of the country and handing it to 20-25 businessmen, because of which unemployment had shot up. Mr. Gandhi said that if the Congress comes to power, it would enact a Right to Apprenticeship Act, so that graduate/diploma holders would get paid apprenticeship for a year.
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