Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday referred to the BJP-RSS as a “bunch of jokers” who have no understanding of India and scoffed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of foreign policy which he claimed was all about hugging leaders.
Addressing the Rachnatmak Congress National Convention here, the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha also claimed that the RSS as an original force is dead and has now become an “instrument of large capital — Mr Adani and Mr Ambani”.
Talking about the media toeing the government’s line on various issues, he said he understands their limitations but asserted that national spirit was about not allowing a “bunch of clowns to create an order over us”. He also said it has somehow been ingrained in Modi’s mind that foreign policy is about hugging leaders. Gandhi then hugged Rachnatmak Congress chief Sandeep Dikshit to show what foreign policy was about for the current government.
“Imagine the ignorance….where did he get the idea that foreign policy was about hugging leaders,” he said. Dikshit then asked Gandhi, “Ek cheez pooch sakta hoon? Meloni samajh ke toh nahi pakda tha?” Some social media users slammed the remarks referring to Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni as misogynist. Gandhi responded by saying, “I have not reached there yet.” The BJP hit back at Gandhi for his ‘bunch of jokers’ remarks with Education Minister Pralhad Joshi saying, “Rahul Gandhi, when will you grow up? Running India requires mature leadership, not amateur dramatics. Calling a democratically-elected government ‘jokers and clowns’ proves you are out of your depth.
By insulting the prime minister, you mock millions of voters who chose Modi ji for three historic terms.” “You are attacking the electorate’s intelligence simply because they rejected your dynastic politics. Labelling citizens as cowards for dismissing your negative narrative is exactly why you face almost a 100 electoral defeats. Stop the arrogance and respect the public mandate,” he added. In his address, Gandhi, while asserting that the Congress will keep up the pressure on the government, said, “Till the day Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah don’t give their resignations, they will not be able to sleep, we will keep them awake…we will do it without hate, violence. We are fighting for our culture, our county is not about hate but about love, brotherhood and ‘ahimsa’.” He said it is important to understand that the fight is between some people who want to give order to others and those who want to express themselves.
“If you look at what was happening at Jantar Mantar, the students wanted to express themselves but the government stated that ‘we want order and you cannot express yourselves’,” he said. “So their (BJP-RSS) political philosophy is to impose an order on India which benefits them and certain other people. Our job is to make India express itself and break that order,” Gandhi said, adding that “we will drive them crazy”. He claimed Modi is unable to sleep at night. “There are various reasons, there are some hidden reasons. You saw Amit Shah, so-called Chanakya, what else was he called, Sardar Patel, ‘tadipaar’, where has he disappeared? He ran way, he could not enter Parliament for 20 days…because for the first time they are feeling India’s expression.
They have understood that this country will not stop expressing itself,” Gandhi said. They can create their little order of the RSS but it would be broken and thrown away, he said. Gandhi also gave several practical demonstrations on stage and said that if he gets scared and simply follows orders then he would stop expressing. “That is cowardice. A lot of people in India have been behaving like cowards, so many people, they have been behaving like cowards against this cowardly force.
I can understand that if you are fighting the British empire, and suddenly you say that ‘I am feeling a bit scared’, but you are fighting a bunch of jokers how can you feel scared. You are literally fighting a bunch of jokers, clowns, who have no idea about our philosophy, history… they are a bunch of clowns,” Gandhi said. “I can say this about the friends of the RSS, these people have no understanding of India. Why? Because somebody who cannot connect with India as it is today, cannot understand India. You cannot understand India 3000 years ago, you have to understand it today. The only way to understand it today is to understand its expression,” he said. Gandhi claimed that the RSS has been “captured and utilised by the large capital –Mr Adani and Mr Ambani”. The RSS ceased to express long ago as originally it was expression of the small Indian businessman — goldsmiths, jewellers, ‘baniyas’, and that has died, its gone, he said.
“They stand their with their lathis and make a fool of themselves,” he said. Gandhi said through demonetisation RSS finished off their own people. “Today, the RSS is an instrument of Mr Adani. It started during Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s time, it was started by Pramod Mahajan…and final corporatisation of the RSS was Narendra Modi. The RSS as an original force is dead, they are gone, now the RSS is now instrument of large capital.
They are servants of Mr Adani, just like Mr Modi is a servant of Mr. Adani,” he claimed. “Have you asked why Prime Minister Modi never does a press conference. I thought it was some marketing strategy but I sat with him for five minutes in a room and realised that he cannot go before the media,” the former Congress chief said. He slammed Prime Minister Modi’s foreign policy and recalled how his grandmother Indira Gandhi stood up to the US. “I was small, I went to the US with Priyanka, my mother and my grandmother who was the prime minister. My grandmother and my mother went to the state minister.
My grandmother told my mother when they came back that ‘these Americans think I am a fool’. My mother asked why and she said, ‘you didn’t notice that the colour of Nancy Reagan’s dress was the same as that of my sarees’,” Gandhi recalled.
He said that in this work the Indian prime minister does not make friends but protects India’s interests. “From where, it has gone in PM (Modi’s) head that they (leaders) are my friend,” he said. “A US-Iran war broke out. In such a scenario, if there had been leadership like Indira Gandhi ji, we would have had the biggest opportunity.
Because Iran is our old friend, America and Russia are also our friends, so we could have mediated friendship between them. But Pakistan stepped in and took our place, and Narendra Modi just stood by watching,” Gandhi said. He also said the day there is talk of finishing RSS’s expression, he will protect them. “We say that expression should be allowed for all,” he added.