Reacting to BJP terming Gandhi’s claim as “fake news, ” saying that Jaitley passed away on August 24, 2019, while the draft Farm Bills brought to the Union Cabinet on June 3, 2020, and the laws enacted in September 2020, Congress said the comments “were in the context of the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Bill of 2013 and the Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing Act.”; “he (Arun Jaitley) forgot Rahul Ji is a Gandhi, not a Savarkar.”
The BJP has rubbished the charge but the Congress is pressing with claim that late BJP leader Arun Jailey did come to 10 Janpath (mother Sonia Gandhi’s residence) to meet Rahul Gandhi “carrying a threat.”
Reacting to BJP terming Gandhi’s claim as “fake news,” saying that Jaitley passed away on August 24, 2019, while the draft Farm Bills brought to the Union Cabinet on June 3, 2020, and the laws enacted in September 2020, Congress said the comments “were in the context of the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Bill of 2013 and the Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing Act.”
“The Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi vehemently opposed these anti-farmer laws. It is in this context that the late Arun Jaitley came to 10 Janpath to meet Rahul Gandhi carrying a threat. But he forgot that Rahul Ji is a Gandhi, not a Savarkar,” wrote Khera
Addressing Congress’ annual legal conclave at the Vigyan Bhawan, Rahul said: “I remember when I was fighting the farm laws — he’s not here anymore, so I really shouldn’t say it, but I will — Arun Jaitley ji was sent to me to threaten me.”
He went on to add: “He (Arun Jaitley) said to me, ‘If you carry on down this path, opposing the government and fighting us on the farm laws, we will have to take action against you. I looked at him in the face and said, I think you don’t know or have an idea who you’re talking to. Because, we are Congress people, and we’re not cowards. We never bend; the superpower British couldn’t bend us and who the hell are you?”
‘Fake news,’ BJP said
BJP hit back saying the farm laws were brought in 2020 while Jaitley passed away in 2019.
IT cell head Amit Malviya wrote on X: “Fake News Alert. Rahul Gandhi claims that Arun Jaitley approached him to water down his opposition to the 2020 farm laws. Let’s set the record straight—Arun Jaitley ji passed away on August, 24 2019. The draft Farm Bills were brought to the Union Cabinet on June 3, 2020. The laws were enacted in September 2020,” he said.
Former MP and SAD leader Naresh Gujral added to it saying that “Akali Dal was part of the NDA, and we left them on the issue of the farm laws.”
“No BJP leader threatened us, forget about Arun Jaitley, who was a thorough gentleman. So when the leader of the opposition speaks like this, he only damages his own credibility, I would urge him to be more careful in the future,” he said, expressing “shock and pained” over what Gandhi said about his “late dear and close friend Arun Jaitley ji.”
“The whole world knows that he (Arun Jaitley) was a true democrat. Everybody knows he was a gentleman who would never use this kind of threat or this kind of dialogue. When Mr Gandhi says things like that, he only hurts his own credibility,” said Gujral.
Arun Jaitley’s son Rohan also slammed Rahul over his remarks, asking the Congress leader to “let the departed Rest in Peace”.
“To suggest Arun Jaitley ji approached him for anything at all is factually incorrect and misleading,” he said.
Sit and listen, advises Congress
Congress retaliated saying that “the Farm Laws of 2020 were not the only anti-farmer legislations of the BJP government. They were the culmination of a long, deliberate, anti-farmer agenda that the BJP government had been cooking up in its cauldron of destructive policy.”
Advising the “uninitiated who have been jumping since the morning to sit down and listen,” Khera wrote: “the first blow came in December 2014 itself, when Modi resorted to diluting the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation Bill of 2013. Then in 2017 came the so‑called Model Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing Act – another backdoor assault on farmers’ rights.
“The Congress, led by Rahul Gandhi vehemently opposed these anti-farmer laws. It is in this context that the late Arun Jaitley came to 10 Janpath to meet Rahul Gandhi carrying a threat. But he forgot that Rahul Ji is a Gandhi, not a Savarkar.
“Nevertheless, what matters is not who conveyed the threat but on whose behalf was it being conveyed. The hand behind it was the (Prime Minister Narendra Modi)Modi- (Home Minister Amit Shah)Shah duo. This was never about one Bill or one Act – it was about crushing Rahul Gandhi’s fierce, unyielding defence of India’s farmers or the Indian people in general. The intention of the threats was to silence us but they have only ever strengthened our resolve,” he added
