Rahul trying in vain to defend support to 'traitors': BJP

Countering Rahul Gandhi's offensive, BJP today said he has hit a "new low" by supporting "anti-national" voices after he met the President over JNU row, and accused Congress of politicising the issue to derail government's developmental agenda ahead of Budget Session.
Accusing Congress of "crying over death of terrorists", BJP national secretary Shrikant Sharma said Rahul's meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee and his assertion that nationalism runs in his blood was meant to "defend" himself after his stand on the issue "sparked anger in the country".
Sharma alleged that it was the height of Congress' anti-development politics and its malice against the Modi government that it had aligned itself with anti-national voices after "manufacturing" several campaigns earlier.

"Rahul Gandhi has fallen to a new low. There is deep anger in the country over what happened in the JNU and his support to traitors who raised slogans against India.... His visit to the President and what he said later was an attempt to defend himself.
"One wonders what is there in the blood of Congress that makes it cry over the death of terrorists and coin terms like 'Afzal Guruji' and 'Hafiz Sahab'," he told the media.
Rejecting Rahul's attack on the RSS, Sharma said he kept repeating what he had "rehearsed" and that his family has a history of "abusing" the Hindutva outfit to remain in power.

"RSS has only grown stronger with their attacks," he said.

While the Left has a record of siding with such anti- India forces, he alleged, now Congress has also joined hands with them.
Sharma claimed that when there was "celebration" in JNU
over the killing of security personnel by Maoists in Dantewada, NSUI, the student wing of Congress, and ABVP, affiliated to RSS, had come together.
The BJP leader claimed there was division in opposition party with one faction having sympathies with soldiers and families of martyrs while the other one under Rahul was "insulting" them.
Asked about reports of lack of evidence against JNU student union president Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested on the charge of sedition, Sharma showed videos in his mobile which purportedly had Kanhaiya shouting anti-national slogans.

"Let police do its work and law take its course. People should not try to be judges," he said.
In a jibe at Rahul over his assertion that nationalism runs in his blood, Sharma raked up an article in a Congress journal that had called Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's father a "fascist". A red-faced Congress had sacked the content editor after the controversy.
Sharma also accused West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC president Mamata Banerjee of not taking action against "anti-national" elements in Jadavpur University and Malda due to her vote back politics.
(Reopens DEL42)
Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi over his comments that nationalism was in his blood, BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav said wryly that "this is why he went to stand with traitors in JNU".

"Rahul Gandhi stands with those wanting destruction and disintegration of the country. BJP's ideology is about unity and integrity of the country," he told reporters.