Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s remark that he has “dismantled the prime minister’s image” might come back to hurt him in the Lok Sabha elections. He said the statement, made during Gandhi’s interview to NDTV on Thursday, was a “dead giveaway” that he is a dynast.
Gandhi had claimed in the interview that Modi’s clean image has been shattered because of the controversy surrounding the Rafale jet deal. He had also asserted that according to internal party surveys 67% of the Indian public believes there is something fishy about the defence agreement. The Congress chief had also claimed that there was a “massive upsurge” in the country against the “type of government” being run by Modi.
“Dynasts have self-illusory opinion about themselves,” Jaitley wrote in a blog post. “They create a disproportionate image about their own abilities in their own mind and believe that the universe around them thinks alike. They tend to become megalomaniacs. Rahul Gandhi is no exception.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said Gandhi had a “disproportionate impression” about his oratorical skills, pointing out that he has challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a public debate. Jaitley claimed that Modi’s popularity rating was close to 70% but the Congress chief still believed he was unpopular. “The irony of every dynast is that he buys his own propaganda even if there are not too many others willing to accept it,” he added.
The minister said it was unacceptable to the Gandhi dynasty that a commoner such as Modi had defeated the Congress in 2014. “Unacceptability of a commoner challenging the dynast and defeating him led to both envy and revenge,” he added.
“Rahul’s statement quoted in a media organisation yesterday that ‘I have dismantled Modi’s image’ was a giveaway,” Jaitley said. “The only way a dynast with a little acceptability in the country can react to the commoner who defeated him is that ‘I will damage his image’. But how do you damage the image of a person who is riding perhaps at the peak of his popularity? How do you damage the reputation of a person who is known to be incredibly honest?”
The Gandhi family, meanwhile, has been “tainted through generations” with allegations of corruption, he added.
The BJP leader said Gandhi “concocts falsehood, as in the Rafale case, starts believing his falsehood to be true and eventually dreams that the falsehood has destroyed his opponent”. He accused the Congress president of not listening to the people.
“Rahul’s attitude is at complete variation with the traditional Congress way of doing things,” Jaitley added. “His revenge against Prime Minister Modi may not succeed. It may well turn out to be a revenge against the Congress.”
Polling in the fifth phase of the seven-phase General Elections will be held on May 6. Results for all phases will be declared on May 23.
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