BJP believes Rahul Gandhi’s faux pas helps it question the seriousness and credibility of his corruption charges and him as a politician.
New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s gaffe on corruption allegations against Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and his son has brought much cheer to the BJP camp, which believes it gives the party useful ammunition against Gandhi in the heated poll season.
According to party sources, the BJP is “quite pleased at the development” and feels it helps it puncture Gandhi’s corruption allegations against the party leadership, while also giving it another weapon to take a jibe at the “confused and careless” leader.
“He [Gandhi] has himself admitted he is confused, what more can we want. By making such allegations and later saying he got confused trivialises the anti-corruption plank he is hoping to use in a big way,” said a highly placed source in the party who did not wish to be identified.
“It also re-affirms his image of being a non-serious, careless and confused politician,” the BJP leader added.
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The controversy
The controversy began when Gandhi, while addressing a rally in Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh Monday, said Chouhan’s son’s name had surfaced in the ‘Panama Papers’, but no action was taken. Taking to Twitter Monday night, Chouhan turned up the heat on Gandhi, threatening to file a defamation case against him.
“Mr @RahulGandhi. You have been making patently false allegations of Vyapam to Panama Papers against me and my family. Tomorrow, I am filing a criminal defamation suit for maximum damages against you for frivolous and malafide statements. Let law take its own course now,” he tweeted.
Gandhi, meanwhile, decided to clarify the error and admit he had got “confused”, but not without taking a jibe at the BJP.
“BJP mein itna bhrashtachaar hai ki main kal confuse ho gaya tha. Madhya Pradesh ke CM ne Panama nahi kiya unhone to e-tendering aur vyapam scam kiye hain (There is so much corruption in BJP that I got confused. The Madhya Pradesh CM does not feature in Panama but he has done e-tendering and Vyapam scams),” Gandhi said Tuesday.
Gaffe blunts Gandhi’s charges
Gandhi has made corruption his election plank ahead of the five state polls due in November and December as well as Lok Sabha polls next year. He has been at the forefront of attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi directly on the Rafale deal issue, raising it nearly every day on some platform, making it clear he plans to go big with it in the run-up to the polls.
Sources in the BJP said with his latest faux pas, it helps them question the seriousness and credibility of Gandhi’s corruption allegations against the party and its leadership.
“This is a bit of a self-goal by Rahul. Now, whenever he talks about corruption, especially the Rafale deal, we will remind the voters of this mistake which he has himself admitted to and ask them how they can trust him as a leader and the accusations made by him,” said another party leader, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
So far, PM Modi has obliquely responded to Gandhi’s corruption allegations against him mainly by playing the naamdaar versus kaamdaar card — a way to portray himself as the hard worker who has risen from the ground but who is unfairly targeted by the entitled dynast. BJP believes with Gandhi’s latest “blunder”, more heft is added to criticism against him by his rivals.
Also read: This is what Rahul Gandhi seems to be obsessed with
‘Minor slip’ by Gandhi, says Congress
The Congress, meanwhile, refuses to get bogged down and says this was just a “minor slip” by Gandhi, and that BJP’s “thrill will be short lived”.
“Children of senior BJP leaders & chief ministers have been accused of involvement in various scams…Yeddyurappa’s sons faced charges; Vasundhara Raje’s son was involved with Lalit Modi; Pankaja Munde was accused in the Chikki scam,” Rajeev Gowda, Rajya Sabha MP and Congress spokesperson, alleged.
“Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s wife has been accused of involvement in the Vyapam scam…Not to forget the questions about Jay Amit Shah’s finances,” he claimed.
“Given this track record of alleged involvement of BJP leaders’ families in scams, what Mr Gandhi said was just a very minor slip,” Gowda said, calling the BJP “Bhrashtachar Janata Party”.
Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said that BJP is headed for a defeat.
“The BJP’s thrill is going to be very short-lived. The people of Madhya Pradesh will ensure its defeat. There is no denying the fact that there have been innumerable scams under the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government,” she said.
“There may have been slight confusion on Mr Gandhi’s part given the large number of scams, but it does not take away from the fact that the CM and his family members have presided over many scams in their 15 years in power,” Chaturvedi added.