‘Mir Jafar' jibe, comparison to Pak army chief: BJP's Amit Malviya targets Rahul Gandhi over Jaishankar remarks
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Amit Malviya on Tuesday called the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, 'the new age Mir Jafar', sharing a cartoon in which the Rae Bareli MP can be seen standing on the back of Pakistan's defence minister Khwaja Asif.
This wasn't the first attack launched by the BJP IT cell chief on the Congress leader in the day. Earlier, he had alleged that Rahul Gandhi was aiming for 'Nishan-e-Pakistan', the neighbouring country's highest civilian award. Malviya had also shared an edited photo, showing half the face of Gandhi along with half of Pakistan army chief Asim Munir's face.
Malviya's jibe came a day after Gandhi launched a fresh attack on S Jaishankar, saying on Monday that external affairs minister 'silence' over his question on notifying Pakistan about India's strikes under Operation Sindoor was 'damning'.
The BJP IT Cell chief posted a meme showing the Congress leader asking the Indian Army, 'How many aircraft we lost?'.
'Rahul Gandhi is the new age Mir Jafar,' Malviya wrote in his X post.
It is said Mir Jafar, who served as a commander in the Bengal army under Siraj ud-Daulah, had betrayed him during the Battle of Plassey, paving the way for British rule in India.
In the post where he shared an edited image of Rahul Gandhi comparing him with Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir, Malviya wrote: 'It is not surprising that Rahul Gandhi is speaking the language of Pakistan and its benefactors. He hasn't congratulated the Prime Minister on the flawless #OperationSindoor, which unmistakably showcases India's dominance. Instead, he repeatedly asks how many jets we lost—a question that has already been addressed in the DGMO briefings. Curiously, he hasn't once inquired about how many Pakistani jets were shot down during the conflict, or how many were destroyed while parked in their hangars when Indian forces pounded Pakistani air bases. What's next for Rahul Gandhi? The Nishan-e-Pakistan?' Malviya wrote.
The opposition leaders slammed Amit Malviya's attacks on Rahul Gandhi, with Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi suggesting that the BJP reconsider its social media strategy.
"At a time when the opposition leaders of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha in the all-party meeting supported the government and the armed forces to take every possible action against the terrorist attack. When the entire opposition is supporting and are going before the world (all party delegation) by keeping their personal differences aside, and Amit Malviya is making statements on Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, which is against the spirit of the work being done. The BJP should rethink its social media strategy," Chaturvedi was quoted by ANI as saying.
Congress leader Pawan Khera also lashed out at the BJP after Malviya's posts on Rahul Gandhi.
"As far as Nishaan-e-Pakistan is concerned, their leader, Morarji Desai, was the only Indian politician who was awarded it for leaking RAW's secrets. Nobody else got it...Some more people deserve Nishan-e-Pakistan, like Lal Krishna Advani, who called Jinnah a secular, and the person who went to eat biryani with Nawaz Sharif without being invited," Khera told ANI.
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