Poll setbacks made Congress ideologically bankrupt: Nadda on Kharge’s ‘terrorists’ jibe

PTI, Oct 13, 2024, 7:48 PM IST

New Delhi: Continuous electoral setbacks for the Congress have left its chief Mallikarjun Kharge ideologically bankrupt, BJP President J P Nadda said on Sunday, claiming that the opposition party’s “terrorists” barb at the ruling dispensation was born out of its desperation to protect its “failed product”, a jibe at Rahul Gandhi.

India’s oldest party has come to such a sorry state that one feels pained, Nadda said in a statement, adding that Kharge should rather introspect people’s falling trust in the Congress and why it loses (polls) so frequently.

People know which party supports anti-national forces, urban Naxals and those trying to defame the country, Nadda said.

The BJP president’s rebuttal came a day after Kharge called it a “party of terrorists” in an apparent counter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent characterisation of the Congress as an organisation run by “urban Naxals”.

“The Congress is unable to pose a ground challenge to Modi’s pro-people and pro-poor policies which put the nation first. Its entire leadership has instead turned to abusing the BJP and Modi and defaming the country,” Nadda said.

Kharge’s comments reflect frustration and ideological bankruptcy, he added.

The BJP and the Congress have been engaged in a war of words after the former surprised the opposition by pulling off a stunning victory in the Haryana Assembly polls, a prospect deemed unlikely by most political experts and exit poll projections.

Nadda said the Congress leadership was in extreme shock following the poll defeat and that Kharge’s comments were not only ridiculous but also exposed his party’s character.

Firing a volley of questions at the Congress, Nadda asked who all were involved in moving the Supreme Court at midnight to stay the conviction of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and who cried profusely at the Batla House encounter in which Indian Mujahideen operatives were killed while a police officer also lost his life.

“Who extended support to those raising slogans in favour of Guru in JNU? Which government used the term saffron terror,” the BJP chief asked.

Nadda also took a swipe at the Congress over its MoU with the Chinese Communist Party when it was in power at the Centre, and Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who drew flak in India for her criticism of the government’s handling of Jammu and Kashmir, and her visit to PoK, among other issues.

Slamming the Congress for allegedly seeking evidence for the surgical and air strikes aimed at destroying terror camps across the border, Nadda said the entire party leadership has suffered intellectual degradation in its bid to protect and shine a “failed product”.