ROHTAK, May 3 : Defence Minister Rajnath Singh Friday asserted that India needs a leader with a 56-inch chest and not someone who flees from battle, as he mocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for “running away” from Amethi and instead contesting from Rae Bareli.
People like Gandhi want to lead the country, the senior BJP leader said in a swipe at the former Congress president at a public meeting here and claimed that many Congress leaders wanted Gandhi to contest from Amethi but he chose to run away.
“He could not gather the courage to contest from Amethi… I am concerned that he may be given a different name after running away from this battle,” Singh said wryly.
“People like him (Gandhi) want to lead the country. One should have a 56-inch chest to lead the country,” he said, praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership for India’s growing economy and global power.
Modi has often described himself as a leader with a 56-inch chest to make a point about him being strong and decisive.
The Congress earlier announced that Gandhi would contest from the Rae Bareli Lok Sabha seat and not Amethi, the constituency from where he lost to the BJP’s Smriti Irani in 2019 after representing it for three consecutive terms.
His mother Sonia Gandhi has been winning from the Rai Bareli seat since 2004 and has now become a Rajya Sabha MP.
When the elections are finished, the Congress toll will be finished, Singh claimed, slamming the opposition party over Pakistani leader Chaudhry Fawad Hussain’s praise for Rahul Gandhi. Hussain had earlier supported the Pulwama terror attack in India, he told the crowd.
Noting India’s retaliatory attacks on terror camps in Pakistan after terrorists struck in Uri and Pulwama during Modi’s first term, the former BJP president said it sent the message that the country was no longer weak.
Under Modi, India is a strong country whose voice is given due attention at global platforms, he added.
“India has given the message that India can kill (terrorists) inside as well as outside its borders,” the defence minister asserted.
Noting that Mahatma Gandhi had wished after Independence that the Congress should be dissolved and not be in politics, Singh said people should fulfil his wish in the elections and finish off the main opposition party.
India under Modi has emerged as a strong country whose voice is heard globally, he said, adding that its economy has also become the fifth-biggest in the world.
Over 25 crore people have been lifted out of poverty as well, Singh said.
Modi spoke to Russian and Ukrainian leaders when the war between the two countries broke out to ensure a ceasefire for over four hours so that Indian students could be evacuated from the war zone, he said.
Singh accused the Congress of practising divisive politics and cited the recent row over its leader Sam Pitroda’s reference to inheritance tax to slam the party.
The defence minister said the BJP’s victory in the Lok Sabha polls has begun with its candidate getting elected unopposed from Surat and hit back at the Congress for its criticism of the ruling party, saying Congress nominees have been so far elected 20 times unopposed in several polls earlier.
Polling will be held in all 10 seats of Haryana in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha election on May 25. The BJP won all the seats in the state the last time.
Rohtak has long been a bastion of Congress stalwart Bhupinder Singh Hooda before the BJP won it in 2019 as its candidate Arvind Sharma rode the ‘Modi wave’ to defeat his son Deepender Singh Hooda by a narrow margin of over 7,000 votes.
Both candidates are in the fray again. (PTI)
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