Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters said, Narendra Modi’s decision to remove him from Parliament was a “panic reaction” because the Prime Minister is “scared” and did not want him to give yet another speech in the House about the “relationship” between the Prime Minister and industrialist Gautam Adani.
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— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 25, 2023
Rahul Gandhi said “disqualify me, disqualify me for life. Put me inside jail. I will keep going. I will not stop.” He had been disqualified because the “Prime Minister is scared of my next speech in Parliament he is terrified. They don’t want that speech in Parliament,” he added.
Rahul said, “I am here defending the democratic voice of the Indian people. I will continue to do that. I am not scared of these threats, of these disqualifications, of these allegations, of these prison sentences. I don’t care. I am not scared of them. These people don’t understand me yet… I am not scared of them. They are used to everybody getting scared of them. I am not scared of them. I will continue to ask the question… What is the Prime Minister’s relationship with Mr Adani? It is an old relationship. It is a relationship that began when he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat. Mr Adani constructed the idea of resurgent Gujarat, organised all that. This is a partnership. It is a close partnership and I will keep asking that question.”
Rahul stated that the accusation that his speech, which resulted in his conviction and questioned “why all thieves had the Modi surname,” offended the OBC group lacked merit because throughout his Bharat Jodo Yatra, he had repeatedly talked of harmony among all communities.
The Congress leader declined to comment on the legal issues of the case when asked about the BJP’s assertion that the conviction was a result of “due process of law” and a court judgement. “I appreciate the judicial system in India. At this news conference, I won’t discuss the legal system,” he stated.
Rahul responded when asked if it was time for the Opposition to come together after even Congress rivals spoke out against his disqualification: “I thank all the Opposition parties who supported me on this issue.”
Rahul said things had been set in motion a few weeks ago, after his speech in Parliament on the Adani issue. He said the BJP “started its work” after that speech. “My speech was expunged. I wrote a letter to the Speaker with a detailed explanation on the defence industry, on the airports (projects awarded to Adani), with press clippings, supporting documents, legal documents, and said this is the supporting foundation of my speech… I have not invented this, this is detailed research, here it is… Nothing happened,” he said.
“My speech today is not part of the record of Parliament… After that, BJP ministers lied about me in Parliament. They made statements to distract from the Adani issue. The whole game… disqualification and all these statements are to distract from a central question: whose money is it, the Rs 20,000 crore? The whole thing is to distract. They said I have asked foreign forces to help India. The most ridiculous statement. I have never made such a statement, you can look at the conversations I had in the UK… Not one such statement was made. In fact, I said this is India’s problem and India has to resolve this problem,” he said.
“A minister lies on the floor of the House. I wrote to the Speaker. I said it is my right as an MP when somebody makes an accusation to state my position. Let me state my position. The first letter is not answered. I then write a second letter with more details, taking the names and what was said. Still, no answer. I then went to the Speaker’s chamber, asked him what was going on, that ‘We live in a democracy, you are the defender of that democracy, why are you not letting me make my statement?’. The Speaker smiled and said, ‘I cannot do that, come and have a cup of coffee with me’,” Rahul said.
“I have seen fear in the eyes of the Prime Minister – he is afraid of my next speech in Parliament on Adani. The simple question is – Whose foreign money worth ₹20,000 crore pumped into the Adani group by shell companies? This whole drama is to divert attention from this question,” he said.
मैंने प्रधानमंत्री की आखों में डर देखा है – वो डरते हैं अडानी पर संसद में मेरे अगले भाषण से।
सीधा सवाल है – शेल कंपनियों द्वारा अडानी समूह में लगाया गया ₹20,000 करोड़ का विदेशी पैसा किसका है?
ये सारा नाटक इसी सवाल से ध्यान भटकाने के लिए है।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 25, 2023