Rahul Gandhi acting ‘martyr’ to take political mileage in Karnataka polls: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched a scathing attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and said that he is resorting to lies again to defend his London speech. The senior BJP leader also added that after his disqualification from Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi is trying to prove himself a “martyr” and is looking at taking political mileage in the upcoming Karnataka polls.

“The fact is that businessmen Adani's issue has nothing to do with his disqualification. In fact, it is Rahul Gandhi, who is trying to distract attention from his habit of speaking disparagingly about others and in this case the backward classes. It is the Surat court that served him sentence after he did not apologize for his casteist remark,” Prasad told reporters at the Bihar BJP office in Patna.

The BJP leader again questioned how a number of senior lawyers in Congress did not act to avoid the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi, as they did for another Congress leader Pawan Khera.

“As many as 32 other leaders, including six of the BJP and RJD leader Lalu Prasad, have been disqualified from the Lok Sabha. Seven cases of defamation against Gandhi are still pending in different courts, including one in Patna,” he said.

Prasad added that Congress is trying to take political mileage for the upcoming Karnataka polls and Rahul Gandhi's disqualification was natural under the Representation of People Act, after his sentencing. "The BJP will go to the public to expose the deliberate attempt of Rahul Gandhi to belittle backward classes,” said Prasad.

“The leaders of the Congress must be ashamed of making baseless remarks about PM Modi, a powerful leader who has taken the developmental journey of India to newer heights, whose stewardship has made India the 5th largest economy in the world. Rahul Gandhi had complained that his phone had Pegasus. But he did not go to get his phone ‘checked’ when asked by the Supreme Court, in case his phone really was marred by it. Why didn’t he go? He actually was afraid,” Prasad said.