New Delhi, 11 November (H.S.): Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Dr Sudhanshu Trivedi launched a sharp counterattack on Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi over his remarks on the Indian economy, asserting that while India was advancing towards new heights of development, the politics of the Opposition appeared to be sinking to increasingly lower levels.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters on Wednesday, Dr Trivedi referred to Rahul Gandhi’s description of the Indian economy as a “so-called dead economy”. He argued that the same economy had demonstrated its strength through the scale of gold and silver purchases recorded across the country on Dhanteras. He claimed that the volume of gold and silver purchased in India in a single day on Dhanteras was equivalent to what the entire European continent purchased over three months.

He said this was evidence of India's economic strength and also reflected, in his view, the disregard and negativity that Opposition leaders harboured towards the country's traditions, religion and culture. While India continued to make progress, he alleged, Opposition leaders were unwilling to acknowledge the country's achievements and instead resorted to what he described as baseless remarks.

Reacting to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's description of Diwali as “Khushiyon Ki Eid”, Trivedi said the choice of expression was surprising. He pointed out that Kharge hails from Karnataka, where the Kannada words commonly used for a festival include “Utsav” and “Habba”, and questioned why the term “Eid” had been used in this context.

He said the episode demonstrated the extent to which India's religious and cultural traditions could be disrespected, alleging that the conduct of the Opposition, particularly the Congress, reflected such an attitude. Trivedi accused Congress leaders of making remarks that triggered controversy instead of demonstrating respect for India's traditions and cultural identity.

Responding to the Samajwadi Party's announcement that it would organise a show of strength in Ayodhya on December 12, Dr Trivedi said that although the party was describing the proposed event as its own demonstration of political strength, it would, in reality, reflect the strength of the BJP's ideology and the unity of Indian society.

He argued that the Opposition parties' present statements about visiting Ayodhya were driven by prevailing political circumstances and that they had little choice but to respond to the growing influence of social unity. He claimed that the strength of unity within Indian society was now becoming increasingly visible.

Dr Trivedi further said that if Indian society demonstrated even greater unity in the forthcoming elections, those who had visited Shri Ram Lalla to seek blessings and whom he described as “election-time Hindus” would themselves be seen chanting “Jai Shri Ram” by the next election.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar