Jyotiraditya Scindia is a 24-carat traitor, says Congress leader Jairam Ramesh

Calling Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, who quit the grand old party to join the BJP, “a 24-carat traitor”, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Friday (December 2) ruled out taking such leaders back into the party fold.

“Scindia is a gaddar (traitor), true gaddar, real gaddar and 24 carat gaddar,” reiterated Ramesh, speaking on the sidelines of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra which has reached Agar Malwa in MP.

Ramesh told PTI that people like Kapil Sibal who maintained a “dignified silence” after leaving the party could be allowed to return, but not the ones like Scindia or Himanta Biswa Sarma. Replying to a question about the party’s stand on renegade leaders wanting to return to the Congress, Ramesh said, “I think the people who have left the Congress should not be welcome back.”

According to Ramesh, there are people who left and abused the party, so they should not be taken back. “But there are people who left the party with dignity and have been maintaining a dignified silence on the Congress party and its leadership,” he said, giving the example of his former colleague and a very good friend Kapil Sibal.

Also read: Congress courts fresh trouble as party stands at the cusp of change

Ramesh said that Sibal left the party for some reason, but he has maintained a very dignified silence on the Congress party, unlike Scindia and Himanta Biswa Sarma.

“So I think such leaders who have maintained a dignity could be welcome back, but those people who have left the party and kicked the party and its leadership should not be welcomed back,” he added.

It was to a question on whether Scindia would have left the Congress if he had been offered the Congress party president post or Madhya Pradesh chief minister or a Rajya Sabha berth, Ramesh called Scindia a ‘gaddar (traitor), true gaddar, real gaddar and 24 carat gaddar’.

Also read: Bharat Jodo Yatra: Key to Congress’ electoral revival lies elsewhere

Reacting to Ramesh’s comments, Madhya Pradesh BJP secretary Rajneesh Agrawal said Scindia was a “24 carat patriot with strong cultural roots”. Both Scindia and Sarma have “24 carat” commitment to their work and Ramesh’s remarks were “uncultured” and “totally undemocratic,” Agrawal pointed out.

Sarma left the Congress in 2015 blaming Rahul Gandhi’s mismanagement for the party’s electoral debacle and joined the BJP. He went on to become a Union minister and later chief minister of Assam. Scindia quit the Grand Old Party in 2020 which resulted in the fall of the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. He was later inducted in the Union cabinet and made civil aviation minister.