New Delhi: The BJP on Wednesday took potshots at Rahul Gandhi over his US visit next week, asking the Congress leader to disclose whether he is travelling abroad to interact with students or “anti-India forces”.
This came after Indian Overseas Congress chief Sam Pitroda said that Gandhi will have fireside chats at Columbia and Chicago universities on global student movements and geopolitics, respectively, during his visit to the US.
Asked about Gandhi’s US visit, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “Look, this is no longer a new thing. He should go and tell if he is interacting with the students or interacting with anti-India forces.”
The BJP Rajya Sabha MP said Gandhi has never spent even 15 days in any poll-bound state to campaign for his party.
The BJP has often accused Gandhi of travelling abroad to meet anti-India forces and defaming the country in his public interactions there. Instead of hitting the ground during elections to campaign for his party, Gandhi chooses to go abroad and makes “baseless” allegations of “vote chori” when his party suffers defeat in polls, the saffron party has alleged.
“Excluding the Covid period, there has never been a stretch of even 25 consecutive weeks during which he (Rahul Gandhi)did not travel abroad,” Trivedi said while responding to queries from reporters at the BJP headquarters.
“I have a question for the person who has been raising the ‘vote chori’ slogan. Our national president Nitin Nabin recently visited Uttar Pradesh. Amit Shah spent several days in Punjab. But Rahul Gandhi, after a trip to Vietnam, is now heading to America,” Trivedi added.
In an interview with PTI from Chicago, Pitroda said the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha is coming to the US mainly for two important engagements which were planned quite some time ago.
“One is a fireside chat at Columbia University (on 17th) mainly on the global rise of the student movement, what it means, how it is seen in India, the impact on democracy, their demands on education, employment, economy and environment,” Pitroda said.
“And the second one on the 18th November is at University of Chicago with a very distinguished professor, Dr. (Robert) Pape, who is very well known in the geopolitics area. He has a very unique view on the Middle East, the Iran war and all that. So the second conversation would be more on geopolitics and global affairs,” the Indian Overseas Congress chief said.
Slamming the BJP for its repeated attacks on Gandhi that he has defamed India abroad, Pitroda said it was a “bogus” argument as it is “not a question of criticising anybody, it’s a question of showing facts as you see it”.
