The BJP on Wednesday took a swipe at Rahul Gandhi over his visit to the US next week, asking the Congress leader to disclose whether he was travelling abroad to interact with students or "anti-India forces".
This came after Indian Overseas Congress chief Sam Pitroda said Gandhi would hold fireside chats at Columbia and Chicago universities on global student movements and geopolitics, respectively, during his visit to the US.
Asked about Gandhi's visit, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “Look, this is no longer a new thing. He should go and tell if he is interacting with the students or interacting with anti-India forces.”
The BJP Rajya Sabha MP said Gandhi had never spent even 15 days in any poll-bound state campaigning for his party.
The BJP has often accused Gandhi of travelling abroad to meet anti-India forces and defaming the country during his public interactions there. The party has also alleged that instead of campaigning on the ground during elections, Gandhi chooses to travel abroad and makes “baseless” allegations of “vote chori” when his party loses elections.
“Excluding the Covid period, there has never been a stretch of even 25 consecutive weeks during which he (Rahul Gandhi)did not travel abroad,” Trivedi said while responding to reporters' queries at the BJP headquarters.
“I have a question for the person who has been raising the ‘vote chori’ slogan. Our national president Nitin Nabin recently visited Uttar Pradesh. Amit Shah spent several days in Punjab. But Rahul Gandhi, after a trip to Vietnam, is now heading to America,” Trivedi added.
In an interview with PTI from Chicago, Pitroda said the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha was visiting the US primarily for two engagements that had been planned some time ago.
"One is a fireside chat at Columbia University (on 17th) mainly on the global rise of the student movement, what it means, how it is seen in India, the impact on democracy, their demands on education, employment, economy and environment," Pitroda said.
"And the second one on the 18th November is at University of Chicago with a very distinguished professor, Dr (Robert) Pape, who is very well known in the geopolitics area. He has a very unique view on the Middle East, the Iran war and all that. So the second conversation would be more on geopolitics and global affairs," the Indian Overseas Congress chief said.
Slamming the BJP for repeatedly accusing Gandhi of defaming India abroad, Pitroda called it a "bogus" argument, saying it was "not a question of criticising anybody, it's a question of showing facts as you see it".
(With inputs from PTI)