Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to an open debate over his allegation that the opposition was "anti-national" and questioned why the PM had not filed a defamation case against him over his "foreign connections" claim.
Gandhi's remarks came within a day of his earlier challenge for an open debate with Modi for accusing the opposition of taking foreign help to destabilise the country. The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha had also accused Modi of occupying the prime minister's chair with "foreign help".
"It’s been 24 hours since I challenged you, Modi ji. You say the Opposition is anti-national. Choose any stage, any venue, and debate me on this - Who is anti-national? Who has connections with foreign forces? And what is the nature of those connections? Let’s do this as soon as possible. Daro mat!," Gandhi said in a post on X.
"We’ll both be there. The media will be there. The youth of this country will be there. There will be a table. You’ll sit on one side, I’ll sit on the other. You can appoint whoever you want as the judge. You can even make Mohan Bhagwat ji the judge," Gandhi also said.
During the open debate, the Congress leader said there will be questions about the financial system, the financial structure, "how the US deal happened, why it happened and why so quickly, why you made the deal alone and didn’t inform the Cabinet, why the Adani case was closed, Epstein - and many other issues".
"We’ll discuss all of them openly. Let the truth come out. Let everything be crystal clear. You make allegations against me, don’t you? Come forward. Everything will become clear," Gandhi said.
The Congress leader also asked why Modi has not yet filed any defamation case against him over the foreign connection charge made by him.
"You’ve filed defamation cases against me over other matters. I think there are around 45 defamation cases against me. But on this issue of the debate, on the question of foreign connections, you haven’t filed a defamation case. Go ahead, file one. We’ll discuss that openly too. Happy Diwali, Modi ji," Gandhi said ahead of the Diwali festival.
Mocking Gandhi for challenging Prime Minister Modi to an open debate over the issue of "foreign help", Union minister Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday said it is the same as "Islamic fundamentalists talking about secularism".
"Top level debates are done between matured people (sic)," he said on X.
Reacting to Gandhi's Monday post, Rijiju said, "It's same as Islamic fundamentalists talking about secularism, separatists holding Indian flags and anarchists showing Constitution book."
"Pushing agendas of India's enemies yet accusing others of foreign support is self-ridiculing," the senior BJP leader said.
Prime Minister Modi had alleged that obstructionist forces were trying to divide the country and social media was being used to spread rumours.
During his Gujarat visit on Saturday, Modi said, "When the country was seeking solutions to external challenges, some forces within the country were also creating instability by spreading lies and rumours. But the countrymen stood shoulder to shoulder with the nation."
Taking a swipe at the opposition, Modi said, “It is our misfortune that at this time in the country, the opposition has turned into an Avrodh Paksh rather than Virodh Paksh. In their frustration, these people are standing as obstacles in the way of the country’s development. This is not opposition; this is obstruction,” he said.
(With inputs from PTI)