Attacking Rahul Gandhi for not attending a single meeting of the Parliament’s standing committee on defence, BJP president J P Nadda said on Monday that the Congress leader does everything that a responsible opposition member should not do and also accused him of trying to “demoralise” the nation.
The Congress hit back at the BJP and accused it of resorting to “cheap distractions and stunts to manage headlines”.
Nadda said Gandhi skips meetings of the parliamentary standing committee on defence but continues to “demoralise” the nation and questions the valour of the armed forces His tweets came following reports that Gandhi has not attended the committee’s meetings so far.
“Rahul Gandhi does not attend a single meeting of the standing committee on defence. But sadly, he continues to demoralise the nation, question the valour of our armed forces and do everything that a responsible opposition leader should not do,” the BJP president said.
He added, “Rahul Gandhi belongs to that glorious dynastic tradition where as far as defence is concerned, committees don’t matter, only commissions do. Congress has many deserving members who understand parliamentary matters but one dynasty will never let such leaders grow. Really sad”.
Stepping up the attack on the Gandhi-scion, BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said Gandhi chose not to attend as many as 11 meetings of the committee on defence held so far.
“The dynastic family is only interested in defence matters when commissions are involved,” Rao alleged, demanding an explanation from Gandhi as to why he chose to be absent from all the meetings of the committee.
The BJP spokesperson said that Gandhi also chose to not attend a field visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh which proved to be a very important visit for the committee.
“He must apologise to the armed forces,” Rao said.
Hitting back, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said the government has not called any meeting of the parliamentary committee on defence for the last over three months at a time when there has been tension at the border in Ladakh.
“Why resort to such cheap distractions. China is making incursions into Indian territory at 6-7 points in Ladakh and the prime minister is giving a clean chit to China, saying ‘there has been no incursion and no one has occupied our land or post’,” he said.
Gandhi has been leading his party’s sharp criticism of the central government over a host of issues, including the continuing standoff between the Indian and Chinese armies.
The BJP has in turn accused him of lowering the morale of armed forces.
