New Delhi: Minutes after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that Gandhis were not just a family, but a whole ideology, the BJP on Friday hit back saying that the family represents a fake ideology and that Rahul is a ‘nakli’ Gandhi as he is not a descendant of Mahatma Gandhi.
“He (Rahul Gandhi) is not a descendant of Mahatma Gandhi. He is a ‘nakli’ (fake) Gandhi. And it is a fake ideology,” said Union Minister Pralhad Joshi.
The minister was reacting to a statement made by Rahul Gandhi at a press briefing earlier in the day where he said that the Congress was fighting for an ideology for years and Gandhi family wasn’t just one family, but an ideology as a whole.
“Why do they attack the Gandhi family? They do it because we fight for an ideology and there are crores of people like us. We fight for democracy, for communal harmony and we have been doing this for years. It’s not just me who did that, it has been happening for years,” said the Congress MP addressing the media at AICC headquarters sitting along side Rajasthan CM and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot.
Former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress leader made “shameful and irresponsible” comments and noted that it was his grandmother and then prime minister Indira Gandhi who had suspended people’s democratic rights by imposing Emergency.
“Stop demeaning the institutions of India to safeguard your corruption and misdeeds… If people don’t listen to you why are you blaming us,” said Prasad.
If people saw dictatorship, it was during Emergency when people, including opposition leaders and editors, were jailed, judges superseded and censorship imposed. Indira Gandhi had then spoken about having “committed judiciary,” he said.
“Why do you blame democracy when people of India reject you with repeated regularity,” he added and asked Gandhi if there is democracy within his party which has some “good leaders” but it is all about the Gandhi family.
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This is height of desperation and the biggest fakery yet again depicted by Congress. To call them Gandhi is shame. But for Gandhiji himself because of his kindness and magnanimity who advised the then husband Feroz (clearly a Muslim name) of Nehru’s daughter Indira to change his name to Gandhi the saga began. One can see this in Indian restaurants in the UK where the name is kept to suggest it is owned by a Hindu but mostly Bangladeshi run. I would suggest to vet and forensically check anyone suspicious with a Hindu name assuming a position of authority to find out whether that person is simply faking his or her origin.