NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday stepped up its attack on Lok Sabha leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi over his alleged foreign trip amid the opposition’s protest against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.The BJP shared a video on X purportedly showing Rahul Gandhi aboard a flight to Vietnam.“Too tired of spreading lies. Let me tour Vietnam for a while, who would get to know,” the BJP said.BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain also took a swipe at Rahul Gandhi, saying he needed to rest after causing inconvenience to people in the country.“Rahul ji was very tired. He worked very hard. Sometimes he went to a police station, sometimes he sat inside All India Radio, sometimes he lay down on the road to get his pictures clicked, sometimes he pushed and shoved police personnel, and sometimes he knocked a journalist to the ground. He works so hard that he gets exhausted,” Hussain said.“After all this hard work, Rahul needs rest. Every time he puts in such hard work, he takes rest afterwards. So, he has gone to relax, and there should be no disturbance to his rest. He wants to cause inconvenience to the people of the country and then relax himself. The youth of the country are watching closely. He makes all kinds of claims here about the voices of students and the voices of young people, and now this ‘voice’ has reached Vietnam as well,” he added.Meanwhile, Congress hit back at the BJP, accusing it of making an unnecessary issue out of Rahul Gandhi’s foreign trips.“Who travels where and when… what is the issue? Do others not travel abroad? Rahul Gandhi is an individual and the leader of the opposition. He has his duties. He interacts with students at Yale University, meets students in London and engages with intellectuals there. He even gives press interviews, something the Prime Minister does not do,” Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said.
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Dikshit also cited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s foreign visits during Parliament sessions to counter the BJP’s criticism.“We also have a tradition that the Prime Minister does not travel abroad when the Lok Sabha is in session. But our PM broke that tradition. Why does no question arise at that time?” he asked.Rahul Gandhi has been leading the opposition’s campaign against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over the SIR of electoral rolls, demanding his resignation. The Election Commission and the BJP have rejected allegations of irregularities in the revision exercise, accusing Gandhi of “spreading lies”.
