We all know the deep emotional attachment Congress President Rahul Gandhi has with mobile factories. Wherever he addresses a rally, he adds the name of that place to the never-ending lists of possible mobile factories he plans to build when he comes to power. It works like a format. His speech goes, “when the people in China click a selfie, I want them to flip their mobiles and see ‘made in xxx’ written on it.” The speech has become so predictable that nowadays people on social media announce the arrival of mobile factories beforehand, looking at the scheduled speeches of Rahul Gandhi.
Just when the mobile factory jokes begun to feel a little too predictable, Rahul seems to have come up with another ‘fill in the blanks’ speech format. This time, it is about people flocking to the Indian parliament just when they are about to take off to foreign countries. No, EAM Swaraj has not planted teleportation capsules inside parliament, neither has the house started offering special travel coupons. As per Rahul Gandhi’s claim, people storm into parliament before leaving for London and finance minister Arun Jaitley extends them warm farewell wishes before they leave for the airport.
Last month, Congress had alleged that FM Arun Jaitley had ‘met’ absconding millionaire Vijay Mallya before he left for London. Vijay Mallya had stated to the press claiming the same and soon Rahul Gandhi held a press conference, asking for Arun Jaitley’s resignation. A Congress leader named PL Punia had even claimed to have ‘witnessed’ the meeting.
Arun Jaitley had denied the allegations and had explained that Mallya did abuse his privileges as an MP and tried to approach the FM inside the parliament premises, but he had refused to listen to Mallya and had advised him to ‘talk to his bankers’ instead.
Later, a fact check about the veracity of the claims had also proven that the finance minister’s statements were indeed corroborative as per the schedule of the parliament and his activities that day. Congress’ claims had fallen flat.
Now, a month later, Rahul Gandhi has made similar claims. Only he has removed Vijay Mallya’s name and filled in Nirav Modi’s. Speaking at a rally in Datia, Madhya Pradesh, the Congress prince has claimed that Nirav Modi went to the parliament house to meet FM Arun Jaitley before he flew to London.
LIVE: People of Datia have gathered in large numbers to listen to Shri @RahulGandhi. #ChambalWithCongress https://t.co/jK1GOyaKfo
— Congress (@INCIndia) October 15, 2018
In the live video shared above by Congress, Rahul Gandhi is seen making the claim. 9 minutes and 40 seconds into the video, Rahul Gandhi claims, ” Nirav Modi took 35 thousand crores and went to parliament house to meet Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Arun Jaitley has himself admitted it. Nirav Modi went to meet him in parliament and said that I am going to London.”
Now, brushing aside all the disturbing mental images of Nirav Modi dragging huge suitcases of currency notes (for it was Rahul Gandhi only who had earlier claimed that PM Modi took away the demonetised notes and gave it all to Nirav Modi) all the way through the sprawling lawns of parliament building, let us for a moment think about the accusations being made here systematically.
- There are flights to London available from Mumbai. Why would Nirav Modi go to London via Delhi?
- The winter season of parliament concluded on January 05, 2018. So when exactly did Nirav Modi meet the FM seeing that its ‘chhutti’ in the parliament during January and the PNB scam was reported in mid- February?
- Vijay Mallya was a member of the Rajya Sabha, but how can Nirav Modi stroll into parliament and go meeting ministers inside?
- For months, Nirav Modi was rumoured to be in New York City, Hong Kong and even Singapore, it is only in June that it was finally reported that he is in the UK when reports emerged that he has officially sought asylum from the UK government. So when exactly did Rahul Gandhi came to know that Nirav Modi had ‘met’ the FM before fleeing to ‘London’? Does it mean that all this while, Congres has been aware of Nirav Modi’s whereabouts and keeping the nation in dark about it?
Rahul Gandhi has a lot to answer.
People on social media have been asking the question too.
Did Nirav Modi also meet Jaitley in Parliament? Or is it that Rahul Gandhi cannot remember more than 1 name at a time?
— Divya (@divya_16_) October 15, 2018
Goof-ups and jumbling up of facts is something Rahul Gandhi habitually does. Even on the issue of his current favourite topic of Rafale deal, the Congress President has been citing ever-changing facts and figures, never being certain of exactly how much money PM Modi is supposed to have ‘gifted’ Anil Ambani. Even the negotiated price of the fighter jets that he claims keeps on changing event after event.
Rahul : Modi ji Rafale deal pe chup kyu hain? Kyu bolti band hai?
Modi: Chup nahi waiting, 520 se 700 pe to aa gya, 1600 crore pe b aa jaega ??pic.twitter.com/1xKJ7VKZMT
— Dr. Gill (@ikpsgill1) August 29, 2018
This has happened earlier. Even on the Doklam issue, Rahul Gandhi kept on bringing allegation after allegation, speech after speech claiming how the Modi government had failed to handle the crisis and how all hell is about to break loose. But after an awkward question during his Europe tour compelled him to admit he ‘had no details’ of the Doklam issue and cannot answer how he could have handled it better, Rahul seems to have made his peace with the Doklam issue.
So far we have had mobile factories in Uttar Pradesh, Dungarpur, Mumbai, Chitrakoot, Bhopal and about a dozen other places in India. After today’s claims, it seems like now we will have a list of people who manage to enter into one of the most secured buildings in the country, the parliament house, before flying abroad. Either the parliament house would have to start a direct baggage check-in facility for the Indira Gandhi International Airport or our beloved Finance Minster will have to open a special counter for all the fleeing billionaires that are lining up to meet him before fleeing the country.
Maybe Mr Jaitley will consider gifting them special shopping coupons from www.madeinamethi.com for a range of Rahul Gandhi’s favourite merchandise as a farewell present.
