advertisement
Video Producer: Aparna Singh
Video Editor: Prajjwal Kumar
“The prime minister of this country is a coward," said Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in her broadside against Prime Minister Modi.
She was speaking at the day-long 'Satyagraha' held by the Congress at Raj Ghat in New Delhi on Sunday, 26 March. Similar events were also reportedly organised by the party in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statues at all states and district headquarters, from 10 am to 5 pm.
This comes two days after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from Parliament over his conviction in a defamation case.
Here are the main points from the Congress leader's 21-minute speech.
Rahul Gandhi was convicted by a trial court in Gujarat on Thursday, 23 March, in a criminal defamation case that was filed against him for a remark that he had made on the surname 'Modi' in 2019.
Following this, the Lok Sabha secretariat issued a notice on Friday, 24 March, to disqualify Gandhi (as an MP from Wayanad) over his conviction in the defamation case.
Soon after, a political slugfest ensued across party lines as Opposition leaders rallied behind Gandhi to condemn the Modi government's move, calling it "dictatorial" and "arrogant".
Looking back at her father and former PM Rajiv Gandhi's funeral procession in 1991, Priyanka revealed that her brother Rahul Gandhi "got down from the vehicle and started walking behind the Army truck. From Teen Murti to here … he walked behind his father’s dead body in the scorching sun and reached here … and he lit the funeral pyre. That picture is still fresh in my mind – my father’s body was wrapped in the national flag."
Criticising the Indian government for not being able to answer questions raised by Rahul Gandhi in Parliament, Priyanka said, "When they are unable to answer questions, they try to subjugate the people using their might. They try to crush those who raise questions. Have you ever thought about it? Open your eyes, this entire government, the ministers, MPs…why are they trying to save one man? What is in this Adani that you are giving the entire country’s wealth to him? That you get rattled when his name is taken … and the scurry to save him."
Referring to Rahul Gandhi's education in Harvard and Cambridge universities, the Congress leader remarked, "And you make him ‘pappu’. With the help of my media friends, you have not seen his degree, you don’t know the truth but you made him a ‘pappu’. Then you came to know that this ‘pappu’ has embarked on a yatra and it became known that he is not a pappu…lakhs of people are walking with him, he is honest, he understands things, he is going to the people, listening to their problems…and people are walking with him…they got scared.”
“Your Prime Minister asks in Parliament why this family does not keep the surname of Nehru, the entire family is insulted, the customs of the Kashmiri Pandit community is insulted. Following the custom of Kashmiri Pandits, a son wears ‘pagdi’ after his father’s death, taking forward his family’s tradition. But there is no case against you, you don’t get a sentence of two years, you are not thrown out of Parliament, you are not stopped from contesting elections for many years," she further said in her speech.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)
Published: undefined