NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi yet again finds himself in a spot of bother for targeting Prime Minister Modi in his election speeches. The Election Commission has asked the Congress leader why action should not be taken against him for using “panauti” and “pickpocket” barbs at PM Modi. The poll body has reminded Rahul Gandhi that the Model Code of Conduct prohibits leaders from making unverified allegations against political rivals.
This is not the first time that the Congress leader has landed in trouble for attacking Prime Minister Modi during elections.In the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Rahul used the slogan “Chowkidar chor hai” to target the Prime Minister over alleged corruption in the Rafale deal. However, the Supreme Court rejected all allegations of corruption in the deal and the Congress leader’s campaign failed to help the grand old party. In fact, Rahul was forced to issue an apology to the apex court after he was pulled up for misinterpreting its observations in the case.
Rahul had then told the top court that the comment was made in the heat of campaigning. A three-member bench of the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi accepted his unconditional apology and warned him to be “more careful” about future remarks.
Five years later in April 2019, Rahul made another remark targeting PM Modi during an election rally in Kolar in Karnataka. Rahul said “How come all thieves have Modi as the common surname?” The Congress leader was convicted by a Surat court for his remark. He briefly lost his Lok Sabha membership as his plea against the conviction was dismissed by the Gujarat high court, which observed that “purity in politics” was the need of the hour.
One of the recurrent themes of Rahul’s attacks on PM Modi has been the Adani group and its chairman Gautam Adani. The Congress leader accuses PM Modi of helping his friends by taking away the money from the poor and giving it away to rich businessmen including Gautam Adani. At a rally in Rajasthan, he also accused the PM of wanting to make two ‘Hindustans’, one for Adani and the other for the poor.
Ironically, Rahul’s sharp attacks against PM Modi have not seemed to help the party much as far as the electoral gains are concerned. On the contrary, PM Modi successfully uses these attacks to woo voters by making it an emotive issue. It remains to be seen if Rahul’s latest “panauti” and “pickpocket” remarks help the Congress in the assembly elections. However, it may once again bcakfire and land him in a web of legal troubles – or maybe, a short ban on his campaigning ahead of the Telangana assembly elections.
Watch Rahul Gandhi compares PM Modi, Adani with pickpockets in Rajasthan