In a hard-hitting speech, Rahul Gandhi today dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to jail him, accusing him of using "cronies" to "throw mud" at him like the RSS and BJP had done against his parents and grand mother Indira Gandhi in the past.
"You talk of a 56-inch chest. Probe me, then put me behind bars. I want to tell Modi ji and the RSS that I do not have the slightest of fear," a combative Congress Vice President told the prime minister, hitting back at recent allegations questioning his nationality.
"Modi ji, it is your government. You have the agencies. Get a probe done against me within 6 months and send me behind bars if you find something. Stop all this--the mud that you throw at me and my family through your cronies. You are not in opposition, you are in government now," Gandhi said.
Addressing a National Convention of the Youth Congress on the occasion of 98th birth anniversary of Indira Gandhi, he said amidst cheers from the gathering that "there is not an iota of truth," in an apparent reference to the allegations levelled by BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.
Swamy had charged that Gandhi had claimed himself to be a British national in documents before the company law authorities of UK.
Gandhi accused the RSS and the BJP of throwing mud on his family members. He had seen that ever since he was a child, asserting that he is "not going to be scared" by such things and that he will continue to fight against BJP.
Gandhi said, "Ever since I was a child, I have been
watching people from RSS and BJP throwing mud at my grand mother, my father and even my mother. I want to say one thing. Modi ji is now the Prime Minister of India. Different kinds of allegations are levelled against me. There is not even an iota of truth in them."
Rejecting Swamy's allegations, he said," I have not even an iota of fear. I will not withdraw (from attacking Modi). I will continue to fight for the poor, the farmers."
He accused the RSS and banned-outfit SIMI of fanning communal riots.
"They (BJP) say Congress has only 40 to 45 MPs. I want to tell one thing to media, RSS and BJP that we may be having only 44 MPs. Then how have we been able to stop the land bill. What is important is how we fight and what is our ideology. "
Taking a dig at Modi, Gandhi said the prime minister and BJP President Amit Shah toured a lot in Bihar for a clean sweep for the party but instead he saw a "clean sweep by us (JD(U)-RJD-Congress)".
In the coming elections too, "we will have a clean sweep," he said.
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At the AICC briefing, party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi struck a similar note.
"I am asking again on behalf of Congress party -- if there are such serious allegations -- (even if) 100th of it is true, why has not a government agency issued a 'show-cause'?" he asked.
"We will ask the Prime Minister: why doesn't he and the dozen agencies he has take action -- citizenship is two minutes job and take action."
He said that the Prime Minister, with the entire arsenal and authority at his command, should at least give "some hard government evidence. Why does he not do it".
Singhvi alleged that the Prime Minister, NDA and the BJP are clearly "back to their old tricks and the old tricks involve superficiality, hypocrisy and using 'Dirty Tricks Departments' or 'Dirty Tricks Individuals'".
"They know that they are battered and bruised by non- performance... In Bihar," he claimed.
