New Delhi: A day after the Congress party announced that Rahul Gandhi will be visiting the memorial of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Congress leader Gaurav Pandhi called the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stalwart — whose 98th birth anniversary was celebrated Sunday — a “British Informer” during India’s freedom struggle.
Pandhi is an All India Congress Committee (AICC) coordinator, who is attached to the office of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge. The attack comes a day before Congress leader Rahul’s visit to the memorial of Vajpayee.
“In 1942, like all other members of the RSS, Atal Bihari Vajpayee boycotted the Quit India Movement & worked as a British Informer reporting against those who participated in the andolan. Be it Nellie massacre or demolition of Babri, Vajpayee played an imp role in inciting mobs (sic),” Pandhi tweeted.
“There is a reason why BJP leaders today always liken Modi with Gandhi, Patel or other Congress leaders and not Savarkar, Vajpayee or Golwalkar. They know the truth!” he said in another tweet.
Later, the BJP hit out at Pandhi and the Congress, saying that the opposition party was insulting Vajpayee.
“On one hand Rahul Gandhi pretending to pay respect to Vajpayee ji by visiting his Samadhi. On other hand his close aide Gaurav Pandhi insults Vajpayee ji on a day we celebrated his legacy. Rahul’s hypocrisy exposed. If Rahul, Congress truly respect Vajpayee ji then sack him (sic),” BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla tweeted.
On Saturday, as the Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Delhi, before going for a 9-day break, the Congress announced that Rahul will be visiting Vajpayee’s memorial Rashtriya Smriti Sthal in Delhi.
Rahul was supposed to make the visit after the end of the yatra yesterday. He was supposed to pay tributes at the memorials of Mahatma Gandhi, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri along with that of Vajpayee’s.
“We believe in Bharat Jodo,” said Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh while making the announcement, indicating that this was an exercise in overcoming divisiveness.
The announcement was widely seen as an effort by the Congress to distinguish between PM Modi and Vajpayee, both of whom have a strong RSS background. While Modi is being characterised as “fascist”, the opposition party is trying to portray Vajpayee as a more “liberal” RSS man.
However, the Congress party announced that the plan was deferred to Sunday morning as the Yatra ended late, ostensibly due to massive crowds. Incidentally, 25 December happens to be Vajpayee’s birthday.
However, as Rahul, who was supposed to make the visit in the morning, did not get around to doing it, party sources said that there was a communication mistake and that the visit was, in fact, supposed to be on Monday.
Later, the party, in an official release, said that he’d be visiting all six memorials between 7:30 and 8:30am on Monday.
ThePrint has approached Pandhi, the office of Mallikarjun Kharge and Congress’ media department chairman Pawan Khera, for a comment on this matter. But a response was not received at the time of publishing this article. This report will be updated once a response is received.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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