Rahul disqualification: 10 things Priyanka Gandhi said during Congress satyagraha

The Congress on Sunday (March 26) held a “Sankalp Satyagraha” across the country to protest against party leader Rahul Gandhi’s conviction in a defamation case and subsequent disqualification from the Lok Sabha as an MP. Speaking at Delhi’s Rajghat during the protest, his sister and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra launched a blistering attack on the BJP and the Narendra Modi-led Centre. Here are 10 things she said in her fiery speech:

1. “Slap a case on me and send me to jail, too, if you want. But the truth is that the prime minister (Narendra Modi) of this country is a coward… He is arrogant; he is hiding behind his power. But this country has a long tradition … An arrogant ruler will be put in his place by the people.”

2. “He (Rahul Gandhi) walked behind his father’s (Rajiv Gandhi) body in the scorching sun and reached here (Rajghat) … he lit the funeral pyre. That picture is still fresh in my mind. My father’s body was wrapped in the national flag… You (BJP) call my brother, the son of a martyr, a ‘traitor’ and ‘Mir Jafar’. You insult his mother. Your chief minister says Rahul Gandhi doesn’t know who his mother is. You insult my family every day. But no cases are filed…”

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3. “Your (BJP) prime minister asks in Parliament, ‘Why does this family not keep the surname of Nehru?’ The entire family is insulted, the customs of Kashmiri Pandits are insulted…. But there is no case against you; you don’t get a sentence of two years; you are not thrown out of Parliament; you are not stopped from contesting elections for many years…”

4. “They (the BJP) say we are dynasts. Who was Lord Ram? He was exiled; he did his duty towards his family, his land. Was he a dynast? Were the Pandavas dynasts? They fought for the values of their family. Should we be ashamed that our family members laid down their lives for this country, that their blood is in this (national) flag? Their blood is in this soil; they nourished this country’s democracy with their blood.”

5. “Rahul Gandhi has studied in two of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world. He has degrees from Harvard and Cambridge universities… You (BJP) termed him a ‘Pappu’… You did not see his degrees; you did not see the truth. You made him a ‘Pappu’. Then you realised the ‘Pappu’ had come out on a yatra (Bharat Jodo Yatra). You realised that he was no ‘Pappu’. Lakhs of people were walking with him. He is honest too. He understands things. He was going to people, hearing their problems… Then you got scared. You got scared that Rahul Gandhi was raising questions in Parliament to which you had no answers.”

Watch: Congress holds satyagraha across the country | Rahul Gandhi disqualification

6. “What did my brother do? He walked up to (PM) Modi in Parliament and hugged him. He said, ‘I don’t hate you … Our ideologies are different but our ideology is not of hatred.’ … How much will you insult one man? Is this our country’s tradition?”

7. “Those who think they can intimidate us by insulting us and letting loose their agencies on us, they have misunderstood us. We won’t be cowed down; we will fight even more fiercely.”

8. “The man who had filed the complaint against Rahul Gandhi in Surat had approached the court seeking a stay … He got a stay on his own case for a year … One week after Rahul Gandhi’s speech on (Gautam) Adani in Parliament, he approached the court to reopen the case. Within a month, the judge hands Rahul a two-year sentence …. hearing, judgment, sentencing — everything was so fast.”

Also read: Rahul disqualification: Congress holds satyagraha, asks if Nirav and Lalit Modi are OBC

9. “Are you (people) not able to see that your entire wealth is being looted? It is being given to one person; it is being given to a handful of industrialists. Whose wealth is this? Is this Rahul Gandhi’s wealth? This is your wealth … the PSUs built for you are being given to them one after the other. Your employment comes from these PSUs, small businesses, and small traders … No big Adani can give you jobs; they will only snatch away your jobs. Then why can’t you understand? You are paying Rs 1,000 for a gas cylinder and all your wealth is being given away.”

10. “We all have to unite now because the country is in danger. The country’s wealth is being given to one person and the entire government stands up to save that one person…”