Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], November 20 : After eminent personalities wrote an open letter condemning Congress MP Rahul Gandhi for his allegations against the Election Commission of India, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Choudhary said that the Leader of the Opposition's views have no connection with any "kind of tarnishing" the Election Commission.
Choudhary told reporters, "Judges have their own views. Leaders like Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party are also entitled to express their own views... Rahul Gandhi's views are pertinent. It is aimed at protecting people's right to vote nationwide. It has nothing to do with any kind of tarnishing of an institution or the Election Commission... The judges' views should not be treated as sacrosanct. They are not gods."
Kerala BJP chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on Congress MP, saying that he neither cares about India nor Indians.
Sharpening his attacks, the BJP leader claimed that politics is Rahul Gandhi's "part-time vocation" and a "way to fund his abroad travels".
"I had said many years ago that Rahul Gandhi neither cares about India nor about Indians. There is a particular reason why he doesn't spend more than 3-4 months a year in India. His allegiances, passion, loyalties, desires, all lies outside India. For him, doing politics in India is a part-time vocation is a way to fund his travels abroad. He is nothing in his mind that is remotely about the well-being and integrity of India and Indians. He only cares for himself and his family, and for this reason, Congress has become Rahul Bachao Samaj," Rajeev Chandrasekhar told ANI.
Earlier in the day, over 272 eminent citizens, including 16 Judges, 123 retired bureaucrats, 14 Ambassadors, 133 retired armed forces officers, wrote an open letter condemning the repeated "assault on national constitutional authorities" by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi.
"The Leader of Opposition, Lok Sabha, has repeatedly attacked the Election Commission, declaring that he has open and shut proof that the Election Commission is involved in vote theft and claimed that he has 100 per cent proof. Using unbelievably uncouth rhetoric, that what he has found is an atom bomb, and when it explodes, the EC would have no place to hide," the open letter stated.
The letter called on members of civil society and citizens to stand firmly with the Election Commission and urged political actors to stop undermining the "vital institution" with baseless allegations and theatrical denunciations.