An all-out war has broken out among Opposition party leaders over Rahul Gandhi’s protest near Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official residence in Delhi, with the BJP also seeking to capitalise on the row.
Soon after Rahul Gandhi was dragged away from the protest site and subsequently detained, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders accused the Congress of acting in step with the BJP.
They alleged that the Narendra Modi government moved swiftly to engage with the Congress’s protest near the Prime Minister’s official residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg, while it did not respond in the same manner to Sonam Wangchuk’s and the Cockroach Janata Party’s agitations at Jantar Mantar.
Now, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has come under fire from Trinamool Congress MP Kirti Azad and other netizens for allegedly trying to dilute the ongoing protests in the national capital over examination paper leaks and the demand for Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation.
AAP leaders on Tuesday said the Congress was “playing along” with the BJP. They claimed the Prime Minister’s government moved swiftly to engage with the Rahul Gandhi-led protest near his official residence, while stonewalling Sonam Wangchuk and the Cockroach Janata Party’s protests at Jantar Mantar for weeks.
AAP MP Sanjay Singh wrote on X that Modi had got Rahul Gandhi to sit in protest “to weaken the CJP’s movement.”
Responding to Sanjay Singh’s tweet, TMC MP Kirti Azad wrote, “This was not expected from you…You have shamed our friendship.”
Congress leader Srinivas BV also responded to Sanjay Singh’s post, saying, “Why are you fuming? Did Malviya write this tweet or Chadha?” in an apparent reference to BJP leader Amit Malviya and AAP MP Raghav Chadha.
Sanjay Singh’s AAP colleague and Delhi Assembly Leader of Opposition Atishi, meanwhile, went a step further. She said that while the government had refused to speak to the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) and Sonam Wangchuk during their month-long protest, it began talks with the Congress “within an hour of Rahul Gandhi’s demonstration,” referring to Union Minister Jitendra Singh’s meeting with the Congress MP outside the Prime Minister’s residence shortly after the protest began.
In another post, Atishi said the same Delhi Police that stopped CJP protesters from “moving even 100 metres” towards Parliament during Monday’s march had “let Rahul Gandhi reach the Prime Minister’s residence.” She claimed this showed that the “Congress-BJP is one unit.”
Atishi’s post did not go down well with several social media users, with stand-up comedian and filmmaker Varun Grover responding, “Have some shame and delete this.”
AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj also suggested there was a conspiracy behind Rahul Gandhi’s sit-in outside the Prime Minister’s residence, calling it a “BJP jugalbandi with Congress.”
BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya then entered the exchange with his own theory, writing, “It is quite obvious that the sponsored protests were never about students. No affected student was given a platform. Opposition politicians frequented Jantar Mantar in search of political relevance, and now we see Congress and AAP squabbling over credit. No one other than the BJP stands for students.”
What began as a protest over alleged irregularities in competitive examinations has now snowballed into a political slugfest, with Opposition parties publicly attacking one another over Rahul Gandhi’s demonstration near the Prime Minister’s residence. The BJP has also seized on the rift, accusing both the Congress and the AAP of politicising the students’ movement for electoral gain.
