Congress leader, in his first comments after being disqualified from the Lok Sabha on Saturday launched a scathing attack against the BJP-led government at the Centre and said the move to disqualify him was because Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “too scared” of his address on the Adani issue in his speech in Parliament.
Addressing a press conference in New Delhi flanked by Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel and party general secretaries Jairam Ramesh and K C Venugopal, the former Congress chief tore into the saffron party stating he would continue to defend the democratic nature of the country and do his ‘tapasya’ even if he gets disqualified from parliament for life or jailed.
He refused demands made by the BJP to apologise regarding his democracy statements in the UK and said, “My name is not Savarkar, it is Gandhi and Gandhi never offers apology.”
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Gandhi was disqualified nearly 24 hours after a Gujarat court convicted him in a 2019 defamation case. While the Congress slammed as the BJP accused it of “vindictive politics” and vowed to fight against it legally and politically, the saffron party dismissed the allegations and termed Gandhi’s disqualification “lawful”.
Here’re the top quotes by Rahul Gandhi after his disqualification:
- “I have been disqualified because the prime minister is scared of my next speech. I have seen it in his eyes. So he is terrified of the next speech that is going to come and does not want that speech to be in Parliament.”
- “I am here defending the democratic voice of the Indian people, I will continue to do that. I am not scared of these threats, of these disqualifications, allegations, prison sentences. I am not scared of them. These people don’t understand me yet, I am not scared of them.”
- “I am not interested in hope. (Whether) I get my membership back or not, I will do my job. Even if they permanently disqualify me I will do my job, if they reinstate me, I will do my job. It does not matter to me whether I am in Parliament or outside it. I have to do my ‘tapasya’ and I will keep doing it,”
- “The Opposition will benefit the most from this panic reaction of Prime Minister Modi.”
- “They have handed us this weapon. They got into panic mode that the truth will come out.”
- “My speech made in Parliament was expunged, and later I wrote a detailed reply to the Lok Sabha Speaker. Some ministers lied about me, that I sought help from foreign powers. But there is no such thing I have done. I will not stop asking questions, I will keep questioning the relationship between PM Modi and Adani.”
- “I will do whatever I have to do to defend the democratic nature of the country. What does that mean? It means defending the institutions of the country, defending the voice of the poor people of the country.”
- “Whole game of disqualification, allegations by ministers aimed at distracting people from Adani issue. For this government, country is Adani and Adani is country.”
- “My name is not Savarkar, it is Gandhi and Gandhi never offers apology.”
- “I thank all opposition parties for extending support to me, all of us will work together
- “I have always talked about brotherhood, this is not about OBCs.”
- “I will do whatever I have to do to defend the democratic nature of the country. What does that mean? It means defending the institutions of the country, defending the voice of the poor people of the country, it means telling the people of this country the truth about people like Mr Adani who are basically exploiting the relationship with the prime minister.”
- “I will keep asking questions on Adani issue, they cannot scare me by disqualification or putting me in jail. I won’t back down.”
- “Ministers lied about me that I called for foreign intervention, I did not do so.”
- “Attacks being made on democracy in India, examples of it keep manifesting from time to time.”
- “If you catch a thief, the first thing is ‘I didn’t do it’, the second thing is ‘look there, look there…’ That is what the BJP is doing.”
(With inputs from PTI)
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