Amit Shah retorts to Priyanka Gandhi's 'Duryodhan' jibe

BJP President Amit Shah on Tuesday flayed Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Duryodhan, the evil prince from Mahabharata, and said the Lok Sabha poll results on May 23 will determine whether Modi is Duryodhan or Arjun (the protagonist of Mahabharata).

"Priyanka Gandhi has compared Modi ji with Duryodhan. People of the country will decide who is Duryadhan and who is Arjun on May 23. Priyanka ji, do not worry, people will tell you whether Modi ji is Duryodan or Arjun," Shah said at an election rally in Bengal's Midnapore.

While addressing a rally in Ambala in Haryana earlier in the day, Vadra used the Mahabharata analogy to hit back at Prime Minister Modi over his "Bhrashtachari (corrupt) No. 1" jibe at her father Rajiv Gandhi and said: "Modi is as arrogant as Duryodhan".

Taking a swipe at the parties in the opposition Grand Alliance, Shah said here that its leaders have abused and insulted Modi more than 51 times in the run-up to the 2019 elections.

"The alliance partners have abused Modi ji more than 51 times so far," he said.

"Congress leaders like Pawan Khera compared Modi ji with Osama Bin Laden, Vijayashanthi termed him a terrorist, Mallikarjuna Kharge called him Hitlar, while Sanjay Nirupam ridiculed him as a village dweller. Are these not insults to a Prime Minister?"

"If a former Prime Minister is insulted, the Congress leaders get shaken but when the present Prime Minister is insulted they do not utter a word of protest," he added.

Shah also backed Modi's comments about former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, saying referring to true incidents cannot be termed as insults towards someone and asked Congress President Rahul Gandhi to clarify why incidents like the Bofors defence deal case or the Bhopal gas tragedy happened when his father was in the Prime Minister's seat.

"Rahul Gandhi is saying that his father has been insulted. Tell me, can reminding someone about the truth be termed as an insult?" Shah asked the audience at the rally.

"Modi ji said that the Bofors scandal happened during the tenure of Rajiv Gandhi. Did he say anything wrong? Rahul Gandhi should tell the people whether the Bofors scam, Bhopal gas tragedy, the Shanti Sena blunder and the genocide of Kashmiri pandits took place during the time when his father was the Prime Minister or not," he added.

--IANS

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