Hyderabad, Sep 25 Slamming Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his ‘deshdrohi’ remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, union minister G Kishan Reddy on Friday said using such language against leaders elected by crores of people shows that he has lost not just polls, but also his balance.
Before addressing the next press conference, Gandhi should get a mental health check up, the Union Coal Minister said in a statement.
Kishan Reddy warned Gandhi to refrain from using such foul language against a prime minister “whom the world, across cultures and continents, reveres for his Nation First conviction.”
Mounting a no-holds-barred attack, the Congress leader on Thursday said PM Modi, Shah and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar were ‘deshdrohis’ (traitors) as they “destroyed” India’s vote, and demanded that the CEC should immediately resign.
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha advised Kumar to turn “approver”, while noting that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had done a good thing by accepting in a way that “vote chori” (vote theft) is happening.
Referring to the Supreme Court upholding the disqualification of BRS MLA Danam Nagender for defecting to ruling Congress in Telangana, Reddy said rather than apologising to people for the observations made by the apex court, it is ridiculous that Gandhi chose to lecture the nation on democracy on that very day (24 September).
After the Congress formed its government in Telangana, 10 MLAs elected on other party tickets were brought into the party fold under the leadership of Gandhi and Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, he alleged.
Recalling that Nagender contested the 2024 Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket, Kishan Reddy said Gandhi gave the former the opportunity to fight while he still continued as a BRS MLA.
“The people of those (10) constituencies voted for one party; the Congress took their mandate for itself. That is the real vote chori,” he charged.
The party that “steals” mandates through defections and was severely castigated by the Supreme Court for this atrocious behaviour has no moral right to accuse anyone of stealing votes, he said.
Alleging that the Congress and Gandhi have become desperate, the union minister said, when they cannot win the people’s trust, they try to destroy their trust in India’s institutions.
The Congress calls every investigation by ED and CBI into its corruption a “misuse of agencies”, while its own leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, are out on bail in the National Herald case, he said.
“The Congress does not trust the Supreme Court. It does not trust the Election Commission. It does not trust EVMs, and it does not trust our forces. I ask Rahul Gandhi– whom do you trust.”
Gandhi claims that places where the SIR of electoral rolls was conducted, the BJP won by “vote chori”, but facts are otherwise, he said.
In Tamil Nadu, the SIR was conducted, the people elected a new government, and it was not the BJP.
In Kerala, the SIR was conducted, the Congress-led UDF came to power. A Congress MLA from Kerala even admitted publicly that the SIR removed fake voters and helped his party, Kishan Reddy said.
In West Bengal, the Trinamool Congress won 13 of the 20 seats where the most names were removed from the rolls. The BJP won only six. If the SIR was a BJP conspiracy, why did the BJP not win where it was conducted, he said.
“SIR cannot be a conspiracy in Bengal and a blessing in Kerala. Will the Congress also call its own governments in Karnataka, Telangana, Himachal and Kerala illegitimate. Or democracy is alive only when the Congress wins,” Kishan Reddy asked.
The Congress should look in the mirror.
Congress made former CEC M S Gill a Rajya Sabha MP and union minister.
Former Chief Election Commissioner T N Seshan, whom Rahul Gandhi himself called a model of impartiality, fought the Lok Sabha election on a Congress ticket, he said.
The party with this record is in no position to lecture anyone on the independence of the EC, he said.
The Election Commission is an independent constitutional body and NDA government has never interfered in its functioning and never will, he said.
Asserting that crores of Indians across the country stood in queues because they trust the ballot, he said comparing them to the people of Iraq and North Korea by Gandhi is an insult to every one of them.
(PTI News)
