‘Why Would Anyone Holiday on Aircraft Carrier?’ Asks Rahul Gandhi

Congress chief Rahul Gandhi responds to Modi’s ‘personal taxi’ jibe.

(Photo: PTI)

"Why would anyone holiday on an aircraft carrier? It's not a cruise ship!" said Rahul Gandhi in an interview with Hindustan Times, admitting that he had visited IAS Viraat with his father and late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. He said that it was not a vacation and an official trip.

Gandhi was responding to the claims made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Rajiv Gandhi misused the Indian Navy ship as his “personal taxi” during a vacation in Lakshadweep in 1987.

Refusing to respond to Modi's jibes on family members during the election campaign, Rahul said:

“Mr Narendra Modi is obsessed with my family. I’m not obsessed with my family. I don’t think about my father, grandmother or great-grandfather as much as Mr Modi does.”

Rahul Gandhi to <i>Hindustan Times.</i>

"He thinks that that's the place he is going to find an escape. Best of luck to him!"

On Delhi's Full Statehood, Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that if Rahul Gandhi supports full statehood for Delhi, the former would support him as a PM candidate. Responding to his comments, Gandhi said that he is "fond of all these leaders" but the "only voice that has a right to decide who becomes the PM of India" is that of the people, as reported by Hindustan Times.

When asked about a failed attempt at stitching an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi and Haryana, Gandhi said that Kejriwal represents a "voice just as Mr Stalin does or Jayalalithaa ji did.”

“India is a sum total of all these voices and that is something I absolutely respect.”

Rahul Gandhi

PM Modi’s ‘24*7 Image’

Almost everyone has asked the prime minister about his "24*7 image" at several occasions. Gandhi attacked this image and said:

“I will bet you, whatever you want, that as far as thinking about India is concerned, I’m spending at least 10 times that amount of time that Mr Narendra Modi is spending.”

Rahul Gandhi

He was asked about former US President Barack Obama's comment on Modi's ability to work with less sleep, and he said, "Mr Barack Obama was probably having him on! The Americans do psychological profiles of all the leaders and they tell you exactly what you want to hear. And Mr Narendra Modi bought it hook, line and sinker."

(With inputs from Hindustan Times)