Rahul Gandhi acting as the mouthpiece of Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) when visiting Kerala is shocking to all those who have reposed faith in secularist forces and the INDIA bloc during this election, Industries Minister P. Rajeeve has said.
Talking to reporters here on Friday, Mr. Rajeeve accused Mr. Gandhi of giving new weapons to the BJP to use against the Opposition through his speeches in Kerala. Mr. Gandhi had not mustered the courage to criticize the BJP on serious issues such as the Citizenship Amendment Act, he said.
Mr. Gandhi asking why the Central investigation agencies had not taken action against the Kerala Chief Minister had only weakened one of the major campaign planks raised by the Opposition that the BJP was misusing the investigative agencies for political purposes. It enabled Mr. Modi to question the Opposition allegation about the investigative agencies during campaigning in Tripura, said Mr. Rajeeve.
When Mr. Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi were questioned by the Central investigative agencies, the Left did not raise the question of why they were not arrested. “Instead, we criticised the action of the investigative agencies,” said Mr. Rajeeve.
Lashing out at Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy describing Pinarayi Vijayan as a communalist, he said that description was best suited for Mr. Reddy considering his past as an AVBP leader. Recently, a leader who joined the Congress from the BJP claimed that he had done so at the instance of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to defeat the Congress. Similarly, Mr. Reddy should reveal on whose instance he had joined the Congress, he said.
Mr. Rajeeve said Mr. Gandhi had campaigned only once in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar where the first phase of election was held on Friday. Instead of realising the significance of the fight against the BJP in the Hindi heartland, Mr. Gandhi continued to centre on Kerala and act like a local Congress leader. No star campaigner of the Congress had been to the Hindu heartland where the number of BJP seats needed to brought down, he said.
Mr. Rajeeve said that being the only party not to have received electoral bonds, the CPI(M) had locus standi in the matter, which was upheld even by the Supreme Court.
