Claims that Lok Sabha Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has embarked on a foreign trip against the backdrop of the protests seeking chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation have ignited a political debate.
While the BJP has mocked Rahul, the Congress and some of its alliance partners have defended him by emphasising an individual’s right to personal breaks.
The BJP posted on its X handle a video purporting to show a man resembling Rahul in a business-class cabin of a plane and wrote: “Too tired of spreading lies…, now let me go roam around Vietnam for a few days… who would even find out!”
The video had been shared on social media by a passenger and it soon became viral.
Reacting to the BJP’s attack, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit told the news agency ANI: “Do others not travel outside? Rahul Gandhi is an individual, the leader of the Opposition; he has duties.”
“Sometimes he goes to interact with students at Yale University and sometimes with students in London, where he meets intellectuals,” Dikshit told ANI, underlining that Rahul also holds news conferences, something Prime Minister Narendra Modi doesn’t do.
“So, what issue does the BJP have with this?” Dikshit asked, adding: “We also had a tradition of the Prime Minister not travelling abroad when the Lok Sabha is in session. But our PM broke that tradition. Why does no question arise at that time?”
CPM general secretary M.A. Baby also came out to defend Rahul’s visit. Baby told PTI: “Somebody can say that the CPM general secretary should be in Delhi throughout. Why should he go to Kerala? Such questions can be raised. They’re all irrelevant questions.”
BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain criticised Rahul over his purported foreign trip and suggested that he "take rest" after having “inconvenienced people”.
“A man who spends more time chilling than working, and then shouts, ‘vote chori’,” BJP spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said on X, posting a meme of the Congress leader that said “Rahul Gandhi phir chhutti par (Rahul Gandhi on leave again).”
BJP MP Praveen Khandelwal told PTI that this was not the first time Rahul was visiting foreign countries and that he “spent more time” travelling abroad. “His only job is to come to India, create a controversy over an issue and then leave on foreign trips. Where does he go abroad and whom does he meet? Nobody understands this, and nobody knows,” Khandelwal said.
“Rahul Gandhi should tell the country where he has travelled abroad over the last two to three years, whom he has met and who paid for his trips. These questions are important because Rahul Gandhi is not an ordinary person. He is the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a public figure. The public has the right to know why he is travelling abroad.”
Modi 'fight' call
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said all institutions and political parties should unite for national interest and fight together against the enemies of the country.
Participating in Dussehra celebrations here, Modi said: "May our thoughts be aligned, and may... all the institutions of the nation, all political parties, stand together for national interest. We must proceed with this very spirit and we must fight together against the enemies of the country," he said.