Rahul Gandhi mounts attack on Narendra Modi, says ‘boxer PM punched his coach LK Advani in face’
Bhiwani: Continuing his tirade against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for sidelining BJP veteran leader LK Advani, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said that the “boxer” PM was supposed to fight against unemployment and corruption but he instead punched his “coach” in his face, referring to the alleged mistreatment meted out to Advani.
Addressing a rally in Haryana’s Bhiwani, the Congress chief said, “Narendra Modi, the boxer was supposed to fight unemployment, farmer problems, corruption etc but he instead turned around and punched his coach Advani ji in his face, his team Gadkari ji Jaitley ji, then went into crowd and punched small traders and farmers.”
This is not the first time when Gandhi accused PM Modi of mistreating Advani. Last month, the Congress chief alleged that PM Modi had “kicked” out his “political guru” from the stage.
“Advani ji ko stage se laat maarke uthar diya gaya hai (Advani ji has been kicked out from the state),” he had said at a rally in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar.
He had also said that in Hinduism, the Guru or teacher is the most revered figure and Prime Minister Modi “insulted” his guru and “booted” him out.
Gandhi launched the sharp attack at the Prime Minister after the BJP denied ticket to Advani and fielded its president Amit Shah from Gujarat’s Gandhinagar constituency, which was represented by the party stalwart for six terms.
Earlier, Advani, in a blog post titled “Nation first, party next, self last’ had said the BJP never considered its political opponents as “anti-national”.
“The essence of Indian democracy is respect for diversity and freedom of expression. Right from its inception, the BJP has never regarded those who disagree with us politically as our “enemies”, but only as our adversaries. Similarly, in our conception of Indian nationalism, we have never regarded those who disagree with us politically as “anti-national”. The party has been committed to freedom of choice of every citizen at personal as well as political level,” Advani wrote.
Earlier, Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha, who recently quit the BJP hit out at the party leadership for dropping BJP patriarch’s name from the list of candidates.
In a series of tweet, Sinha accused the BJP of “orchestrating the departure of Advani from the political arena and election”. He also attacked the BJP for nominating Shah from Gandhinagar constituency in Gujarat.
