Coming in the wake of the “frivolous” speech Congress president Rahul Gandhi delivered in Parliament during the “serious business” of No-Confidence Motion on Friday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley castigated Gandhi who “nourishes Prime Ministerial aspirations” for having “trivialised” the debate.
In a public article, the Union Minister said, “Those who desire to be Prime Minister never blend ignorance, falsehood and acrobatics.” Chiding Gandhi for a “lack of understanding” of “basic issues” but also of “protocol”, Jaitley wrote that Congress president had frittered away “a great opportunity” for “If this was his best argument for 2019, God help his party”.
Alluding to the allegations that Gandhi levelled in regard to the Rafale deal with France, Jaitley accused him of “concocting a conversation with President Macron” which only “lowered his own credibility and seriously hurt” his image before the “world at large”.
Asserting that Gandhi was “ignorant of facts” and had embarrassed “Dr Manmohan Singh by implicitly insinuating that Dr Singh was a witness to the conversation being wholly unaware that his own Government had entered into the secrecy pact.” The senior BJP leader said Gandhi had attempted to harm “national interest” when he had asked the cost of Rafale aircrafts to be disclosed.
Making a strong, though unfavourable, commentary on Gandhi, Jaitley wrote, “Hallucinations can give momentary pleasure to a person. Therefore, to hallucinate after an embarrassing performance that he has won the future election or to hallucinate that he is the reincarnation of Mark Antony being complemented by friends and foes alike, may give him self-satisfaction but for serious observers, it is more than just self-praise – in fact, a serious problem. Even in dynasties, many successors remind you of the virtues of their predecessors. Yesterday I reread two of Panditji’s legendary speeches – ‘Tryst with Destiny’ and ‘Light has gone out of Lives’.”