Stepping up his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his alleged links with billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani, Rahul Gandhi on Monday asked why his questions directed to the PM were not answered in the Lok Sabha but instead resorted to talking about his surname.
Gandhi, while addressing a public meeting in Wayanad, his Lok Sabha constituency, asked why Modi’s comment referring to Rahul Gandhi’s surname which “directly insulted” him was not expunged from the records.
“He says why is your name Gandhi and not Nehru. So, the Prime Minister of the country directly insults me but his words are not taken off the record. But it does not matter because the truth always comes out,” Rahul said, as quoted by The Indian Express.
PM Modi, while replying to the Motion of Thanks on President’s Address in the Rajya Sabha, Modi had said, “If we miss out on mentioning (Jawaharlal) Nehru anywhere, they (the Congress) get upset. Nehru was such a great person, then why do none of them use the Nehru surname? What is the shame in using the Nehru name?”
Rahul said, “I asked the Prime Minister some questions. I asked him about his relationship with Mr Adani. I asked how Mr Adani has grown so fast. The Prime Minister did not answer a single question. His response to my questions was why are you not called Nehru, why are you called Gandhi. Because generally in India… maybe Mr Modi doesn’t understand this… But generally in India our surname is the surname of our father.”
Meanwhile, the senior Congress leader also criticised the decision to expunge parts of his speech during the discussion, and said that he had written to Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla “with every single point they have removed and supporting proof”.
Rahul said that he did not utter any abusive language in the Lok Sabha, but only pointed out the links between PM Modi and Adani.
Further, the Wayanad MP, said, “Modi thinks that he is very powerful and people will get scared of him. He doesn’t realise that the absolute last thing that I am scared of is Narendra Modi. It doesn’t matter whether he is Prime Minister of India, whether he has all the (investigating) agencies… because the truth is not on his side. And one day, he will be forced to face his truth.”
(With PTI inputs)