Trump assassination attempt sparks BJP’s attack on Rahul Gandhi’s past comments: ‘Encouraged violence against Modi’

Hours after former US president Donald J. Trump was shot at in an apparent assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania, the Bharatiya Janata Party accused Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi of encouraging violence against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Rahul Gandhi on Sunday expressed deep concern over the attack on Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for the White House, and said such acts must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.

These are insincere words, said BJT IT cell head Amit Malviya.

“Third Time Fail Rahul Gandhi has often encouraged and justified violence against Prime Minister Modi, who he has lost election to, several times now. How can India ever forget how Punjab Police, then under the Congress, deliberately compromised PM’s security, when his convoy was left stranded on a flyover,” Malviya posted on X.

Comparing the language US President Joe Biden and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi use for their rival, Malviya, in another post, said, “‘Democracy is in Danger’ is the theme in the US presidential election just like ‘Samvidhaan ko Bachana hai’ was opposition’s pitch here in India.”

Malviya posted some past comments of the Congress leader, adding that Gandhi has used similar rhetoric against Modi, such as calling him a “dictator”, that Trump’s critics like Democrat leader and US President Joe Biden have.

“Caste, like race in America, was weaponised to drive a wedge in Indian society. Demonising opponents and calling them dictator is also not a coincidence. In fact, the global money bag, with dangerous ideas, used the term for the first time to describe democratically elected powerful world leaders, who he couldn’t control,” he added.

The attack on Donald Trump was the most serious attempt to assassinate a president or presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. It drew new attention to concerns about political violence in a deeply polarised United States less than four months before the presidential election.

Many Republicans quickly blamed the violence on Biden and his allies, arguing that sustained attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy have created a toxic environment. They pointed in particular to a comment Biden made to donors on July 8, saying “it’s time to put Trump in the bullseye.”