Two days after Rahul Gandhi made a bizarre argument blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi for India losing the ODI Cricket World Cup final, the BJP is retaliating by digging up Congress’s past.
In a post shared on 22nd November, BJP leader Amit Malviya shared a video clip of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi dated 19th November 1982, when she made an appearance riding an open jeep at the opening ceremony of the Asian Games in the national capital.
“On 19th Nov 1982, a year after India had begged in front of the IMF, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on her birthday, drove in an open jeep to greet the crowd, during the opening of the Asian Games in Delhi. Cameras followed her. What would Rahul Gandhi call grandmother Indira?” Malviya said in a jibe at Rahul Gandhi.
In another post later that evening, Malviya shared a video clip from an interview of former Pakistani field hockey player Hassan Sardar who shared how Indira Gandhi had walked out when India was losing to Pakistan in the 1982 Asian Games Hockey finals.
He said, “We played Asian Games in India. That was a very memorable time for us when we played against India in India, New Delhi, at the 1982 Asian Games. It was a final match and the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was there. And we won this match 7-1 in her presence. When we scored five goals, she left from there.”
Amit Malviya shared this video clip on X, formerly Twitter, and wrote, “Indira Gandhi, in an exemplary show of leadership, walked out when Pakistan scored 5 goals against India. What does that make Indira according to Rahul Gandhi?”
Moreover, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in a counter-attack on Rahul Gandhi’s statement said that India lost the World Cup against Australia because the match was on Indira Gandhi’s birthday.
“We had been winning in all the games and lost the finals. I inquired about why we lost the match, and I found that the World Cup final was played on the birthday of Indira Gandhi. We played the World Cup finals on Indira Gandhi’s birthday, and the country failed,” the Assam CM said.
Quipping further, Sarma said that he had requested the BCCI not to organise a match on the day on which the birthday of Gandhi family members falls. “I have learned this from the World Cup final,” he wrote on X.
On 21st November, two days after the World Cup finals, Rahul Gandhi argued that the unbeaten Indian Cricket team would have went on to win the world cup but Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whom he referred to as ‘Panauti’ (bad omen/unlucky charm), made them lose the match.
The Congress prince made this remark while addressing an election rally in Rajasthan’s Jalore. Rahul Gandhi said, “Modi comes on TV and says ‘Hindu- Muslim’ and sometimes goes to a cricket match. It is a different matter that the match was lost. Panauti.”