New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi lashed out at a journalist over a question on the Surat Court judgment on the ‘Modi surname’ case and asked him to “show some discretion”.
Addressing a press conference for the first time on Saturday after being disqualified as a Lok Sabha member, Rahul Gandhi confronted the journalist saying that he is “directly working for the BJP”.
“If you want to work for the BJP then put a BJP badge on your chest. Then I'll answer to you the same way I answered them (other journalists). Don't pretend to be pressman,” Gandhi said.
The Congress leader further said that he does not care if he is disqualified permanently and that he will continue to fight for India’s democracy.
“Even if they disqualify me permanently, I will keep doing my work. it does not matter if I am inside the Parliament or not. I will keep fighting for the country,” Gandhi said, adding, “I am not interested in anything but the truth. The Prime Minister is scared of my next speech on Adani, and I have seen it in his eyes. That is why, first the distraction and then the disqualification.”
Taking a dig at the Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar, Rahul Gandhi said that the ‘Gandhis don’t apologise to anyone'. He had earlier claimed that Savarkar had helped the British government during India’s freedom struggle and said he had written mercy petitions to be freed from the Andaman cellular jail.
Notably, Rahul Gandhi was disqualified as a member of Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after a court in Surat convicted him in a four-year old defamation case over his remark on ‘Modi surname’.
The Lok Sabha secretariat said in a notification that Rahul Gandhi has been disqualified from the day of the conviction under the Constitution’s Article 102(1)(e) read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act.