New Delhi (TIP)- The Congress has mounted an intense offensive against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the latter’s “new age Ravan” poster against Rahul Gandhi, with its leaders saying the remark exposed the ruling party’s “nefarious intentions” to murder him.
Senior Congress politician KC Venugopal on Thursday, October 5, condemned the poster shared by the BJP’s official X handle, alleging the ruling party was planning a conspiracy to “eliminate” their “fiercest critic”.
The poster entails a morphed image of Gandhi portraying him as mythological demon king Ravan. The poster’s caption described him as “evil, anti-Dharma, anti-Ram”.
“No words are enough to condemn the shameful graphic on the BJP handle comparing Rahul Gandhi to Ravana. Their nefarious intentions are clear, they want to murder him. He, who lost his grandmother and father to assassinations,” Venugopal wrote on X.
“They withdrew his SPG protection to score petty political points. After evicting him from his secure residence, they haven’t allocated another house that he has requested for. All this points to a well-planned conspiracy of the BJP to eliminate their fiercest critic, someone who attacks the very core of their hate-filled ideology,” he added.
Congress MP Manickam Tagore said the BJP was trying to provoke violence against Gandhi.
“They are provoking those kinds of people to do violence against Rahul Gandhi. He is a leader who has lost his father and grandmother to violence. These kinds of promotional things from a national party are unfortunate and condemnable. PM Modi and JP Nadda should apologise for it,” he told ANI. Congress leader PL Punia said, “As the elections come near, their (BJP’s) statements would change. It is unfortunate that such statements are made. This is BJP’s nervousness that they are making such statements…the BJP is scared that they would have to leave because of the INDIA Alliance.”
In response to the poster, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Thursday shared an old cartoon on X depicting Mahatma Gandhi as Ravana.
“This cartoon was published in the Agrani magazine in 1945 edited by Godse. One of the persons aiming the arrow at Gandhi is (V.D.) Savarkar. Gandhi and Congress have always been their target. But we were neither scared then, nor are we now. In the future too, we won’t be scared of them,” he claimed.
“What is the real intent of an atrocious graphic portraying Rahul Gandhi as Ravan by the BJP’s official handle? It is clearly intended to incite and provoke violence against a Congress MP and a former President of the party, whose father and grandmother were assassinated by forces that want to divide India,” he wrote on X on Thursday. The Congress later also came up with a poster against BJP stalwart Narendra Modi, calling him “Jumla Boy”.