What we can say for Rahul’s ‘hallucinations’: BJP’s swipe on his allegations

PTI, Mar 3, 2023, 5:15 PM IST

The BJP on Friday made light of Rahul Gandhi’s allegation that he was being snooped upon, saying that the Congress leader was ”hallucinating” and makes such claims as he wants to create headlines wherever he goes.

”What we can say for Rahul Gandhi’s hallucinations. If he makes his (Congress) MoU with China public, we will be interested and people of India will also like to know. Who is interested in his telephonic conversations,” BJP spokesperson Tom Vadakkan told reporters.

During a lecture at Cambridge University, Gandhi alleged that Indian democracy is under threat and several politicians, including himself, are under surveillance. ”A large number of political leaders have Pegasus on their phones. I myself had Pegasus on my phone. I’ve been called by intelligence officers who say please be careful of what you say on the phone as we are recording the stuff,” the former Congress chief has claimed.

Vadakkan noted that the Supreme Court has closed the Pegasus matter.

He added that Gandhi had not even given his mobile phone for inspection during the inquiry, directed by the Supreme Court, into the Pegasus issue. What was he so scared to hide, the BJP spokesperson asked.

”Why is he not raising questions about the attack on Indians abroad. It has happened in Canada and Australia. The issue is he wants to create headlines wherever he goes and in that process, he loses votes in India because people of India have woken up,” he said.

Vadakkan, a Christian leader from Kerala, also hailed the BJP’s performance in assembly polls in three northeastern states, noting that minorities have voted for the party. ”The victory of the BJP in the northeast is a blow to the divisive politics, the Congress and the CPI (M) is poisoning the people with. Their agenda is to keep the minorities and the tribals away from the BJP by their hate campaigns, but this has blown on their own face,” he said.

”The BJP believes in development, and development has no religion. We have got victory in the northeast because the minority believes in the BJP, in development,” the spokesperson said.

This is the mantra of Prime Minister Narendra Modi everywhere and he does not merely make speeches but delivers, and it has been seen with the boost in infrastructure, gas and water connections, and several other facilities, he said. Vadakkan claimed that Gandhi may work for an alliance between the Congress and the Left in Kerala to save his Wayanad seat in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and check the internal squabbling within the Congress due to the presence of several factions headed by many chief ministerial aspirants.

Both parties have a common interest in stalling criminal cases about gold smuggling and National Herald, he said. He also accused Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge of ”insulting” the people of the northeast by describing the polls there as ”small state” elections. It was done to cover up the bitter defeat the Congress had to swallow in the elections, the BJP leader said.

Such remarks have exposed the hypocrisy of the Congress, he said. ”The Congress has given second class treatment to the northeast for years, and it was finally after 2014, that the peace and development started flourishing in the region,” Vadakkan added.