Rahul Gandhi’s speech in Berkeley sparked off a controversy back home, with the BJP alleging that he used a foreign platform to criticise the country. The Congress shot back, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi has criticised the country during his public interactions abroad on several occasions.
The BJP seemed rather irked by Rahul’s comments on the Modi government’s economic policies. Attacking the government’s decisions such as demonetisation, Rahul had said: “The government’s economic policies, demonetisation and hastily-applied GST have caused tremendous damage. Millions of small businesses were simply wiped out as a result of demonetisation.”
He also said agriculture is in deep distress and farmer suicides have skyrocketed across the country.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani fired the first shot against Rahul. “A failed dynast today chose to speak about his failed political journey in the US...the country (India) is not listening, so he is speaking somewhere else,” she told reporters on Tuesday. “The fact that Rahul Gandhi chose to belittle the Prime Minister is not a surprise but expected...It is an indication of his failed strategy. The people of the country where he leads a political party no longer support him so he is expressing his pain abroad.”
The Congress said it was Modi who was guilty of insulting India on foreign soil. “It is the present Prime Minister who is guilty of insulting India on foreign soil. It is wrong to accuse Rahul Gandhi of having said anything which is belittling. It again betrays the streak of intolerance and criticism by the BJP and the present government,” senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said. “Instead of criticising us, today is the time for Prime Minister and his apologist ministers to reflect and apologise to the country for having said such words on foreign soil. The statements and issues raised by the I&B Minister display her ignorance of history and her eagerness to be an apologist for a PM who has betrayed the country.”