Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to address a rally in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun on December 16. Before his visit, several posters have sprung up in the city questioning Congress’s sudden respect for ex-CDS Late Bipin Rawat, who died in the IAF chopper crash on December 8, 2021.
The poster has a photograph of younger Rahul Gandhi with Congress Leader Sandeep Dixit that was carried out in a media report in 2017 with the title, “Congress leader Sandeep Dixit called Army Chief ‘roadside goon’”.
In the poster, it is written, “Will those who called General Rawat roadside goon be able to respect the Army?”. The poster has come as a reply to the campaign posters raised in the city by the Congress Party in which they used a photograph of ex-CDS Rawat. The poster depicted that Congress had organized a rally scheduled for December 16 with the title ‘Uttarakhand Vijay Samman Rally’.
The Uttarakhand Pradesh Congress Samiti was behind the poster. It had a large portrait of CDS Rawat and did not contain photographs of any Congress leader. Alok Bhatt had shared it on Twitter. He had said, “Look how quickly Congress has appropriated a general who Rahul Gandhi aide called “Sadak ka Gunda”!
A similar poster was shared by BJP spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga. In a tweet, he said, “How low can Congress fall? The Congress party had abused Gen Rawat while he was alive. They called him a roadside goon. Now, only after a week of his death, they are using his name in the rally to collect votes. Shame on Congress.”
OpIndia reached out to Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, In-charge Uttarakhand BJP Youth and Spokesperson BJP Delhi, to know his views on the issue. He said, “Congress Party leader who had called Gen Rawat roadside goon still holds the top position in the party. He does rallies with Rahul Gandhi. The party stands with the people who call Army rapists. Such party, when uses Gen Rawat’s name in the poster after a week of his deaths could not be possibly doing that out of respect but only to get votes.”
IAF Chopper crash
On December 8, an IAF chopper with CDS Rawat, his wife and 11 others crashed in Tamil Nadu. All onboard lost their lives. There was a lone survivor, Group Captain Varun Singh, who succumbed to his injuries after fighting for his life for a week.