‘My traitor friend': Rahul Gandhi takes swipe at Ravneet Bittu, minister retorts ‘Desh ke dushman' — Video

Staging a protest on Parliament premises, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, took a swipe at Union Minister of State Ravneet Bittu on Wednesday, calling him "My traitor friend".

Ravneet Bittu, who was a member of the Congress before joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was passing by protesting Congress MPs outside Parliament's Makar Dwar when Gandhi made the remarks.

Bittu passed by the suspended MPs and remarked, “They [suspended Congress MPs] are sitting here as if they have won a war.”

LoP Rahul Gandhi offered to shake his hands and said, "Hello brother, my traitor friend. Don't worry, you will come back [to Congress]."

Bittu refused to shake hands and hit back, saying, "Desh ke dushman (enemy of the state)..." The two leaders were seen exchanging words.

According to news agency ANI, the exchange of words began when Ravneet Bittu commented on the protesting MPs.

The bitter spat was caught on camera. The Union minister was seen in the videos springing past the Makar Dwar stairs, repeating his "desh ke dushman" charge while pointing at the Congress leaders and suspended MPs, who continued to jeer at him. They were also heard saying, "surrender, surrender".

Bittu, the grandson of late Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, was a former MP of the Congress from Ludhiana and Anandpur Sahib before he switched sides to the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Bittu reacts after the incident

After the incident, Union MoS Ravneet Singh Bittu said, “He (Rahul Gandhi) feels that he is the biggest patriot, that his father sacrificed himself,” adding that the Congress and the Gandhi family "had set Punjab on fire".

“…Now that I am in the BJP, he is using such words for me. What does he think of himself? He extended his hand towards me as if he were an emperor. He considers himself the owner of this country, of this world,” Bittu told ANI.

He added, "I might not belong to the Gandhi family, but I have a turban on my head. So, when he offered to shake hands with me, I said 'aap log toh desh ke gaddar ho, desh ke dushman ho' who speaks against the Army and the nation every day. The Gandhi family is the murderer of Sikhs, I won't shake hands with the son of that family."

Congress MPs stage protest

Rahul Gandhi has been criticising the Centre over the India-US trade deal, repeatedly saying that “PM Modi [Prime Minister Narendra Modi] has been compromised”.

Gandhi also raised certain issues related to the unpublished "memoir" of former army chief MM Naravane. He was reportedly disallowed from quoting an article that cited an unpublished "memoir" of Naravane on the 2020 India-China conflict.

Gandhi claimed Naravane has written the full account of what happened in Ladakh. "The main line is what the PM said - 'jo uchit samjho woh karo'. When the Chief of Army Staff Gen Naravane called Rajnath Singh and said 'Chinese tanks have come, what should we do? Rajnath Singh did not reply to him at first. He [Naravane] asked S Jaishankar, NSA [Ajit Doval], Rajnath Singh, but did not get a reply," the Congress leader said citing the "memoir".

Earlier on Wednesday, the Lok Sabha was adjourned till 12 noon amid heavy sloganeering by Opposition members over the suspension of eight Opposition MPs a day earlier during the Budget Session.

The suspended opposition MPs were seen protesting outside Parliament, holding posters reading "PM is compromised". LoP Rahul Gandhi had alleged the same while speaking to the media on the India-US trade agreement.

The suspended MPs include Congress members Hibi Eden, Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Manickam Tagore, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Prashant Yadaorao Padole, Chamala Kiran Kumar Reddy, and Dean Kuriakose, as well as CPI(M) MP S Venkatesan.

Eight opposition members were suspended from the Lok Sabha for the remainder of the budget session for violating rules and "throwing papers on the chair" following uproar in the House over Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's insistence on mentioning a specific reference to the 2020 standoff with China in eastern Ladakh.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju moved a motion for suspension of the eight members for the remainder of the budget session for "violating rules and throwing papers on the chair". The motion was adopted by the House amid protests from the opposition members.