The BJP on Saturday accused the INDIA bloc of making a “mockery” of Parliament and democracy by holding a symbolic public impeachment of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, with party spokesperson Sambit Patra taking a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and claiming he would never become Prime Minister.
“Go ahead and hold your mock Parliament or take out your marches; the world has already understood that Rahul Gandhi simply lacks the fuel. This ‘satellite’ is never going to launch,” Patra said at a press conference at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi. He added that the Opposition could keep Gandhi as its “mock Prime Minister for life”.
Patra accused the Congress of spreading falsehoods about alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and the functioning of the Election Commission. He also dismissed the Opposition's allegations of “vote chori” as lies, claiming that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had become Prime Minister by stealing Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's vote.
The BJP spokesperson also mocked the proceedings held at Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's residence, where INDIA bloc leaders staged a symbolic public impeachment of Kumar ahead of their rally scheduled for Sunday. Presided over by former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, the proceedings were organised in a setting resembling a parliamentary session.
In a further dig at Gandhi, Patra urged the Opposition not to dismantle its “mock Parliament” and suggested that the Congress leader be seated on the treasury benches in a kurta-pyjama while alliance members chanted “Prime Minister” around him.
The BJP's attack came as Opposition leaders accused Kumar of electoral irregularities and demanded his removal from office.
Separately, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi invoked the World Bank's latest poverty estimates to criticise the INDIA bloc's public impeachment proceedings. The report, he said, had “mocked” the Opposition's “mock Parliament”.
The World Bank report estimated that India's extreme poverty rate fell from 27.1 per cent in 2011 to 2.6 per cent in 2023, with 496 million people lifted out of extreme poverty.
Citing the findings, Trivedi said the BJP-led NDA government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi was working to eradicate poverty, while the Congress under Gandhi's leadership was spreading the “flames of anarchy”.
He also hit back at Gandhi's earlier remark that the Indian economy was “dead”, saying the World Bank's findings showed that it was the Opposition's “conscience”, not the economy, that had died.
“Their faculty of rational thinking has completely died so far as India's interests are concerned. They always think against India,” Trivedi said, urging the Congress and Gandhi to distinguish between “reality” and “fiction”.
“How long will you remain trapped in illusions and keep adorning your political funeral just to satisfy the ambitions and soothe the heart of your wayward prince?” he said.
Trivedi said the Modi government was committed to improving living standards across the country and described the reduction in poverty as a major achievement acknowledged by the World Bank.
(With inputs from PTI)