On Rahul Gandhi's Jan Aakrosh Rally, Amit Shah's Stinging Comeback

New Delhi: Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's "Jan Aakrosh" rally in Delhi drew barbs from BJP today, with party chief Amit Shah leading the charge in a series of tweets. Senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad and Nalin Kohli followed suit, retaliating against Mr Gandhi's sharp comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government.

Mr Shah, who was campaigning in Karnataka's Devanagere ahead of the assembly elections in the state, dubbed Mr Gandhi's rally at Delhi's Ram Lila Maidan "Parivar  Akrosh Rally (family wrath rally)"  -- a dig at what the BJP calls the "dynastic politics" of the Congress.

"A dynasty and their courtiers, who were sent out of state after state by 'Jan Aadesh' now pretend to represent 'Jan Akrosh.' Today's Congress rally is nothing but a 'Parivar Akrosh Rally' which highlights their increasing irrelevance," one of Mr Shah's tweets read.

The Jan Aakrosh rally was attended by Rahul Gandhi's mother Sonia Gandhi, who led the party for 19 years before handing over the reins in December. Other senior leaders of the party, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party leaders Amarinder Singh, Sheila Dikshit, Harish Rawat and others, were present on the occasion too.

The Congress, Mr Shah said, is regularly witnessing "Jan Aakrosh (wrath of the people)" at the hustings.
 

If the Congress wants to see 'Jan Akrosh' they should see the results of election after election, where their Party has been comprehensively defeated across the length and breadth of India. People are not tolerating Congress' lies, empty promises, corruption and communalism.

- Amit Shah (@AmitShah) April 29, 2018

The BJP chief even explained why, pointing to the recent parliament session that ended without any of the to-do list being ticked. The BJP and Congress has blamed each other for the impasse and held tit-for-tat fasts to register their protest.
 

If the Congress really wants to know why is there Jan Akrosh, they should answer in today's rally why did they disallow Parliament to function. They should answer why has the Congress prevented the formation of an OBC commission that gives justices to backward sections?

- Amit Shah (@AmitShah) April 29, 2018

Mr Shah made an allusion to the opposition's recent efforts to impeach Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. Without mentioning the matter directly, he tweeted:
 

I also hope the Congress President apologizes to the nation for the Party's efforts to trample over every possible institution in the country just because of their power hungry nature. The country is tired of these negative and arm twisting tactics of the Congress.

- Amit Shah (@AmitShah) April 29, 2018

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress rally was more of a "Kursi ki lalach ki rally (a rally on greed for power)". "Had it not been there, he would not spoken of Congress's victory in the upcoming polls," he said, referring to Mr Gandhi's declaration that not only will the Congress win the coming round of assembly elections, it will also be victorious in next year's general elections.

Senior leader and party spokesperson Nalin Kohli said "Jan Aakrosh" is there among the people for the repeated failures of the Congress on many fronts.