The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday accused Congress President Rahul Gandhi of insulting the country and asked him to apologise for his “veiled justification of terrorism”.
In a speech in the German city of Hamburg on Wednesday, Gandhi alleged that incidents of mob lynching in India were the result of unemployment and destruction of small businesses due to demonetisation. He also cited the example of the Islamic State group to say that exclusion of a large number of people from the development process could lead to the creation of terrorist groups.
“Rahul Gandhi left no opportunity to belittle India and to present it in a bad light,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said in New Delhi. “We need explanations from you. There cannot be anything more frightening and worrying.”
The BJP leader said the Congress president was insinuating that minority communities in India would “sell their soul” to the Islamic State group if they do not get jobs. This amounted to denigrating minorities, Patra claimed.
The BJP spokesperson said Gandhi had a poor opinion of India, adding that he harped on about China in his speech. “In the whole speech I heard only three words, ‘China, China, China’,” Patra added. “You said China makes 50,000 jobs per day and India makes 450. Where did you get this data?”
Patra said Gandhi’s speech was “full of lies and deception”. He wondered if the statistics Gandhi cited about the Chinese economy were “made in 10 Janpath”, referring to the home of Congress president’s mother Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.
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