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Masood’s anti-Modi speech not Congress’ language, says Rahul

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi late on Saturday condemned the language used by party’s Saharanpur nominee, Imran Masood, against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, saying it does not reflect the Congress’ thinking.

He also compared the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) election campaign to a series of films which kept failing, and said voters will reject the BJP, “which plays dirty tricks to mislead the people”, in these general elections like in the past.

Addressing large public rallies in Ghaziabad and Saharanpur, Gandhi said the tape showing Masood making a hate speech against Modi was a six-month-old address in a small gathering.

His claim was supported by Saharanpur’s Additional Superintendent of Police Dharamvir, who confirmed that the speech was six months old, but added that Masood continued to repeat it, if not in exact words, but those quite similar and police have recovered both the CDs (old and latest one).

Masood, nephew of jailed Congress leader Rashid Masood, was arrested early on Saturday and a court later sent him to 14 days judicial custody.

Officials said a first information report (FIR) was lodged in Saharanpur, soon after clips of Masood’s speech spewing venom on Modi and threatening to “chop him into pieces”, were telecast on TV channels.

Gandhi said the Congress never thinks of violence and it is the opposition which is rude and harsh while talking to its political opponents. “This is not the way of the Congress party. I will tell you what the way of the Congress party is. In a recent rally, the opposition leader said about me, ‘He isn’t even fit to become a driver’. But we must not react with anger.

“We believe in the politics of love and we must defeat the politics of anger. We must fight against those who play the politics of anger and hatred and defeat them.”

Attacking the BJP, Gandhi noted that in 2004, it sought to show the entire country that India was shining but this failed to convince the voters.

“People looked around and consulted their families, asked which India was shining and decided that their India was not shining. On the day of the elections, they pressed the button and burst the bubble,” he said.

He likened the BJP campaign to the Dhoom movie series.

“The BJP campaign managers got together again in 2009 and said since Shining-I failed, let us make shining-2 and so they made that,” he said.

Meanwhile, according to the affidavit filed by Masood for contesting Lok Sabha polls, four cases were pending trials in Saharanpur courts and one in District Court in Lucknow.

The cases were filed under different sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), including cheating (Section 420), forgery of valuable security (Section 467), forgery for purpose of cheating (Section 468) and voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty (Section 332) among others, the affidavit said. — Agencies