Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra today found himself at the centre of a controversy over his spat with a reporter asking questions about his land deals with the party coming out in his defence and BJP attacking him for "inappropriate behaviour".
The Congress, which in the past said Vadra was a private citizen, defended him, saying "repeated hounding" of an individual is not appropriate and advised the media to avoid "unpleasantness" of shooting questions at private functions, like what happened to him.
"Indian Constitution and our established ethos guarantee Right of Privacy, personal space and liberty to all individuals, more so, when a person is neither in public life nor holds any public office.
"It is clear that entire episode is being propagated as a political agenda for obvious reasons which cannot be considered either fair or proper," party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said.
He said repetitive hounding of an individual on an issue that has been "conclusively rejected both by a Constitutional body like Election Commission of India as also High Courts and finally the Supreme Court of India is not appropriate".
Congress also reminded BJP of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "shoddy treatment" of two journalists whey they questioned him on Gujarat riots when he was the state's chief minister.
"I want to remind leaders of BJP and friends of the media as to how none less than the current Prime Minister (the then Chief Minister) Narendra Modi had removed the mike and walked out of a pre-fixed interview with leading journalist Karan Thapar who questioned him about Gujarat riots," he said.
Vadra yesterday lost his cool and pushed aside the microphone of a reporter at a five-star hotel gym when he was quizzed about his controversial land deals in Haryana.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said it was Vadra's "sheer frustration" that caused this inappropriate behaviour.
"Vadra was the one who had called India a Banana Republic and we Indians as mango people but it is time that we make him realise that India is no more a Banana Republic which was ruled by the first family of the Congress," Patra said.
