Union civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday made a scathing attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleging that the party was playing with the country’s democracy.
Scindia’s comments come in wake of the Congress continuously holding protests against the disqualification of Gandhi.
“This is now clear that Congress will leave no stone unturned to reach a new low and to play with India’s democracy. They are doing everything to stay politically relevant. This is not a fight for democracy but an individual. Any criticism of this falls short,” Scindia said while addressing media persons.
“A special honour is being given to Rahul ji by the Congress. When he went for bail, he took the entire army of leaders. If this is not an attempt to pressure the court, then what is? In the last few days, Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party is putting pressure on the judiciary and how they have threatened it and made his personal legal fight into a democratic legal fight,” Scindia added.
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The union minister added that the party was disrupting Parliament to stay politically relevant. Scindia also said that Gandhi wasn’t the first parliamentarian to be disqualified from the Lok Sabha.
“Jayalalithaa and Azam Khan were disqualified in past, he said.
“But why is there is so much hue and cry this time? Why are people wearing black clothes,” Scindia said.
Reacting to Scindia’s comments, Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury said the former should explain to the Congress why the party’s demand for a JPC probe into the alleged Adani case is wrong.
“The BJP deployed former Congressmen to criticise us. What is your problem with the black colour? PM Modi’s bodyguards too wear black. Unlike you, we love all colours and not only saffron,” Chowdhury said.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera also hit out at Scindia for his comments.
“It’s funny how Jyotiraditya Scindia talks about political relevance because he himself changed his party to be politically relevant and it is rather surprising how Scindia is tutoring the Congress about staying relevant. Our fight is about the demand for a JPC against the Adani issue and how a conspiracy is being painted to shun Rahul Gandhi. This whole fight is to preserve the wellbeing of democracy and Scindia won’t understand this. We even want to give a piece of friendly advice to PM Modi… Scindia’s political career was massively pushed by Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party, if he can’t be ours, how will he be yours?”, he said.
While reacting to Scindia’s allegations that the Congress was pressurising the judiciary, Khera added, “As far as pressurising the judiciary is concerned, union law minister Kiren Rijiju is constantly issuing threats to the judiciary, so we should ask Mr. Scindia to advice his colleague to not threaten and pressurise the judiciary.”
On Monday, a sessions court in Surat admitted Gandhi’s plea against conviction in the 2019 criminal defamation case that saw him expelled from Parliament.
The court extended his bail till April 13, the next date of hearing on the plea.
The Surat court has also asked respondents to file a reply by April 10 in the case.
The case was filed against Gandhi based on a complaint lodged by BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi for his alleged remark, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”.
The complainant had claimed that the controversial remark was made at a rally at Kolar in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that has defamed the entire Modi community.