Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday compared Lok Sabha member Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to figures who fought against the British – Kittur Queen Chennamma and ‘Jhansi ki Rani’ Lakshmi Bai – and said she represented ‘woman power’. He described Rahul Gandhi as a symbol of ‘youth power’.
Addressing the ‘Gandhi Bharat’ program, Kharge said that Congress has organized this program to commemorate the completion of 100 years of the only session of Congress held in Belagavi in 1924 under the chairmanship of Mahatma Gandhi.
He said, “If anyone is Chennamma of Kittur then it is Priyanka Gandhi. If anyone is the queen of Jhansi then it is Priyanka Gandhi. He is very strong. After the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, he took care of the family. We have woman power (in Priyanka Gandhi) and youth power in Rahul Gandhi.”
In this program organized on the theme ‘Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Constitution’, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was targeted and he was recently criticized in the Rajya Sabha for the Indian Constitution and its creator B.R. Accused of ‘insulting’ Ambedkar.
Union Minister Shah had dismissed the allegations as “false”.
Kharge also recalled Mahatma Gandhi’s famous statement given in Belagavi, “I want to live for India, I want to die for India.” He claimed that Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Gandhi, was a disciple of Hindutva thinker Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
He said that though Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah show respect for Gandhi, they actually worship Godse.
The senior Congress leader also accused the BJP of “playing games” by alleging differences between Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Gandhi and Ambedkar.
Refuting BJP’s claim that Congress had insulted Ambedkar by ensuring his defeat, Kharge showed the public a letter which he claimed was written by Ambedkar to his friend Kamal Kant, in which he had mentioned that Savarkar and S.A. Dange was responsible for their defeat.
Kharge said, “Today the BJP chants the name of Ambedkar and bows before the Constitution. What kind of drama is this? If there is anyone burning the statues of Constitution, Ambedkar and Nehru, it is BJP, RSS and Hindu Mahasabha.”
The Congress chief said it was his party that had helped Ambedkar win the elections.
He also alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was “harassing” Dalits and backward communities in universities, while recruitments were being held for Dalits in the government sector.
On the surveys of mosques being conducted in the country, Kharge said, “BJP and RSS are looking for temples under the mosques. Why are they doing this? They will have to repent because it is dangerous for the unity of the country.”
The Congress leader took a dig at Modi for his alleged statement that people came to know about Mahatma Gandhi after watching Richard Attenborough’s film “Gandhi”.
