Rahul Gandhi responds to Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj's attack in Parliament
Rebutting Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, who referenced "Momma" in a fierce attack on him in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi today threw back a "Beta" remark.
"Yesterday, Sushmaji held my hand and said Beta (son), why are you upset with me? What did I do? I said I respect you and looked you in the eye and said I am speaking the truth. You looked down," Mr Gandhi said as he responded to the minister's barbs.
The Congress vice president said Ms Swaraj would be the "first humanitarian who does humanitarian work secretly."
He reinforced his allegation that Sushma Swaraj concealed how she helped tainted cricket tycoon Lalit Modi get his travel documents in London last year because it was a "crime."
Earlier, Sushma Swaraj had said to Mr Gandhi, who infamously took a two-month sabbatical during an earlier Parliament session this year, "Since you like holidaying so much, next time you take a break, I suggest you read up on your family history, read all the kale karname (wrong deeds) and ask, 'momma, how much money did we make in the Quattrocchi case, why did we let (1984 Bhopal gas tragedy accused) Warren Anderson go? Why the quid pro quo?'"
Ms Swaraj's caustic remarks invoked the Bofors controversy of the 1980s, when Mr Gandhi's father, Rajiv, was Prime Minister at the head of a Congress government. The scandal was based on allegation that Swedish defence manufacturer Bofors paid huge kickbacks to Rajiv Gandhi and others for the sale of an artillery gun to India. In 2004, a court in Delhi said there was no evidence that Rajiv Gandhi had accepted bribes. Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991.
The Congress' protests and demand for Ms Swaraj's removal over the Lalit Modi controversy has left this session of Parliament paralysed.