New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday shared on his official Instagram account her sister and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s fiery speech recounting a three-decade-old incident and said, “this is our heritage.” Addressing the ‘Sankalp Satyagraha’ at Rajghat to protest against Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a 2019 defamation case and his subsequent disqualification from the Lok Sabha, Priyanka Gandhi hit out the ruling BJP for “calling the son of martyr traitor” and “insulting the customs of Kashmiri Pandit society.”
“It was 32 years ago, my father’s (Rajiv Gandhi) funeral procession was leaving from Teenmurti Bhavan,” Priyanka said as she recounted how Rahul Gandhi insisted on walking behind his father’s funeral pyre to Rajghat despite security threats.
“My father’s body was wrapped in this tricolor. That martyr father is insulted in the Parliament. You call the son of that martyr an anti-national. Your prime minister stands in the Parliament and says why this family does not use the name Nehru,” she added, referring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to a debate on the moion of thanks to the President’s address where he asked Gandhi family members asking why they were ashamed of using the Nehru surname.
“You insult the entire family and the tradition of Kashmiri Pandits. But there is no case against you. You don’t get a case or a two-year term and no one disqualifies you. Why?” she asked.
BJP has been trying to corner Rahul Gandhi over his speech at Cambridge University and has been demanding apology for allegedly insulting the country on foreign land.
Priyanka Gandhi on Sunday said a martyred prime minister’s son who walked thousands of kilometres for national unity can never insult the country as the Congress held a nationwide protest against the disqualification of the Wayanad MP from the Lok Sabha.
“This country’s prime minister is a coward. Take me to jail but the truth is this country’s prime minister is a coward. He is hiding behind his power and (he) is arrogant. But this country’s tradition is that people reply to an arrogant king. This country recognises an arrogant king. This country knows the truth,” she said.