'Rahul Gandhi And Investigative Media Platform OCCRP Are Two Bodies, One Soul': BJP

BJP MPs K Laxman and Sambit Patra cited a report in the French media outlet 'Mediapart' to target Gandhi after the ruling party raised the issue in the Lok Sabha

Patra alleged Gandhi was meetings people working against India's interests.

Source : PTI

The BJP on Thursday claimed a link between Rahul Gandhi and international forces, including an investigative media platform, trying to destabilise India and that the Congress leader was a "traitor of the highest order".

BJP MPs K Laxman and Sambit Patra cited a report in the French media outlet 'Mediapart' to target Gandhi after the ruling party raised the issue in the Lok Sabha, which was adjourned amid noisy interventions by both sides.

Patra claimed that billionaire investor George Soros and some US-based agencies, investigative media platform Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), and Gandhi occupy three sides of a "dangerous" triangle trying to destabilise India and stoke public disaffection for a regime change.

"I have no hesitation in saying he (Gandhi) is a traitor of the highest order," he said.

Referring to the 'Mediapart' report, Patra said the OCCRP has over 50 media partners across several continents and depends massively on Soros and "deep state" agencies in the US to fund its work.

If they are getting 70 per cent of their resources from one source, then they cannot be neutral, the BJP leader said, adding that Gandhi has held press conferences to target the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government based on OCCRP's reports.

Gandhi attacked the government following an OCCRP report in July 2021 that Brazil had cancelled a USD 324 million order for Covaxin, a Covid vaccine prepared by a private Indian firm, Patra said.

It was an attempt to malign India and the Congress leader held the press conference based on the report even though the order was cancelled in June, he added.

Similarly, Gandhi targeted the government over the Pegasus issue following an OCCRP report and the media outlet's "hit jobs" on Indian industrialists aimed at tanking Indian markets, Patra said.

The BJP leader said OCCRP also termed the legal proceedings against Gandhi and his mother Sonia Gandhi in the National Herald case, in which the two Congress leaders have been accused of misappropriating assets worth hundreds of crores, "politically motivated".

"OCCRP and Rahul Gandhi are two bodies and one soul," he said.

Patra also highlighted Gandhi's meetings with some people allegedly working against India's interests to make his point.

"Rahul Gandhi does not want India to move ahead. He does not want the Indian Parliament to function," he said, claiming that some of these reports were timed with Parliament's sessions so that the Congress could disrupt its proceedings over "fake" news.

Instead of protesting, the Congress should have debated with the BJP over the issue in Parliament, he said.

Echoing the view, Laxman said anti-India forces have been working day in and day out, and the Congress and its allies disrupt Parliament over their agenda.

Patra said Modi lives in people's hearts due to his work and the people will never fall for Gandhi's attempts to fool them. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)