While referring to the massive Sunday rally by Modi in Delhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said that the forthcoming election will have two characteristics - anti incumbency and referendum on leadership-- and BJP will move forward on both.
Jaitely alleged that Rahul had tarnished the image of PM and the cabinet ministers with his outburst against the ordinance on convicted lawmakers approved by the Cabinet.
"The family must be above them and when somebody from the family said something, it has to be implemented. When it was a moral issue for the last one-and-half month, nobody said anything," he said.
Reacting to the recent events surrounding the controversial ordinance, Jaitely said the government cannot understand the basic principle that "what is morally unacceptable is also not politically acceptable".
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"There may have been 3-5 people who might have been convicted. A convicted person should continue to be a lawmaker, which is why there was an effort to change the law. This was morally unacceptable. So how can it be politically acceptable? And this discussion was going on from mid July. We can live with the fact if 4-5 convicted people sit outside," he said during an event today.
Apparently hinting at RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav's conviction in the fodder scam case, Jaitely said those for whom the ordinance was brought, they got punished and now the Congress leaders "are hiding their faces but this situation was created by themselves".
Not naming Rahul Gandhi, Jaitely said that after all this "he came and said the ordinance was unacceptable. He tarnished the image of PM and the cabinet ministers."
Modi had on Sunday accused Rahul of committing the "sin" of insulting the Prime Minister when he was abroad and asked people to decide in the next Lok Sabha polls if the nation will be run based on the Constitution or whims of the "prince".