Describing the address of Congress president Rahul Gandhi at the 84th AICC Plenary Session as the “rhetoric of a loser devoid of any substance”, the BJP on Sunday hit out at him for terming party president Amit Shah a “murderer”, saying that the Congress leader, who is out on bail in a criminal case, has an audacity of accusing someone who has been duly cleared by court.

“The charge does not hold, even though it was a complete conspiracy by the Congress and a fraudulent at that. It is a motivated campaign… Fasane ke liye, jalsazi”, said senior BJP leader and Union Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, adding this charge had a similarity to those repeated by the Congress against freedom fighter Veer Savarkar and the RSS.

In a sharp attack on the Congress president, Sitaraman said, “A leader who is out on bail of Rs 50,000 bond in a criminal conspiracy in the National Herald case has the audacity of accusing the BJP chief.”

Describing the Congress as a party engaged in “fakery” (peddling fake news), the senior BJP leader went on to said its party leaders “personal bond is safe but his party is losing deposits everywhere”.

Terming Rahul’s comment against Shah as “brazen”, she also took to task Rahul for trying to draw comparison in the names of Nirav Modi, involved in bank fraud, a former

Cricket Board chief Lalit Modi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The Congress president sharing surname with Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi… you are sharing name but you are on the bail,” she said and wondered how any parallel could be drawn with a Prime Minister, who first as a Chief Minister in Gujarat for decades and now as the leader of the Government at the Centre for four years, gave a spick and span Government. “Is it a responsible politics?” she asked.

She lashed out at Rahul for extending “pretentious support to Judiciary and Press “ and reminded Rahul of imposition of Emergency by the Congress after an unfavourable court decision and his father Rajiv Gandhi bringing in a Press defamation Bill in 1988 only to withdraw it later. “Today his grandson says I will come to power and protect the media,” she said.

Sitaraman said a party, which was responsible for Emergency, Sikh riots and recently peddling fake news, wants to see itself playing the role of “Pandavas”. She said it is people of India who will decide who are Kauravas and who are Pandavas of Mahabharat fame.

The BJP leader further said a party whose president questioned the very existence of Lord Ram wants and “ridiculed Hindu rituals and believes” wants to be identified with ‘Pandavas’.

“I have never heard of a ‘Congress priest’ and a ‘BJP priest’, but Rahul has narrated a whole story on that, just a way to mock Hindus and Hinduism,” she said.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi had narrated a story about his meeting and conversation with priests during his visit to a temple.

Ridiculing “Congress manthan”, she said the icing on the cake was the conclusion of Rahul where he said that while the BJP was losing one election after the other his party was winning regularly. “How do you react to this factually incorrect conclusion? Even though the BJP lost two UP by-elections, let us not miss the pint that the Congress lost deposits,” Sitaraman said and again stressed “it is the rhetoric of a loser with no substance”.

Union HRD Minister and senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar also attacked Rahul over his speech at the Congress plenary session, saying he should apologise for his party’s misdeeds first and then attack Modi.

“While accusing the Modi Government he forgets that Congress did worst of genocide of Sikhs, they brought censorship in the media and are known for all kinds of corruption and scams. He should first apologise for all that,” Javadekar said.

The BJP leader also said that Rahul’s accusations against Shah are part of a “conspiracy”.

“They think patriotism is speaking false things but speaking loudly. Their philosophy is to speak and run,” the Minister said.

Cong engaged in fake news, retorts BJP