Congress' history 'soaked in blood': Smriti Irani slams Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi, August 9
Union Minister Smriti Irani today cited the anti-Sikh riots and the Kashmiri Pandit genocide to say the Congress’ history was “soaked in blood” as she intervened in the no-confidence motion debate to rebut Rahul Gandhi. Hammering India’s indivisibility, Irani asked Rahul for his stand on a Congress colleague’s call for a plebiscite in J&K and on ally DMK’s statement that Bharat means Uttar Bharat only. “Rahul Gandhi spoke of the voice of India. Are voices of Girija Tickoo, Sarla Bhatt, and Sikhs massacred in 1984 not voices of India?” the minister asked, recalling how Tickoo was gang-raped and her body mutilated with a mechanical saw in the 1990s and Sarla Bhatt gang-raped at the height of militancy in Kashmir.
Irani also cited recent crimes against women in Congress-ruled Rajasthan and TMC-ruled Bengal and atrocities against women during the 1975 Emergency to say, “Their (Congress) history is soaked in blood.”
The minister further questioned Rahul’s patriotism, flagging a media expose on Chinese financing of Indian news site NewsClick whose researcher’s views, she said, were published on the Congress Facebook page in 2019.
Hitting back at opposition MPs for clapping at Rahul’s “Bharat Mata has been murdered” remarks, Smriti attacked Rahul asking: “The Congress made a sympathiser of Afzal Guru, who attacked this Parliament, its leader. Is this Rahul Gandhi’s patriotism?” Irani accused the Congress of perpetrating corruption and dynastic politics and said “India won’t give the keys of its treasury to your mother now”.
