Priyanka joins verbal war

• Says will not be cowed down by the attacks, it gives more strength
• Her husband has become a scapegoat in vindictive politics
• Pained at the personal attacks on family, more so of falling levels
• Recalls Indira Gandhi’s words that truth will always triumph

New Delhi: Notwithstanding the continuous castigation of Gandhi family, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a rare move, raised the pitch against the BJP for resorting to a political discourse of calumny, vilification and character-assassination, in the run up to the General Election.

Even as her husband, Robert Vadra was being used to launch a political attack on the Congress for the past two years, Priyanka said she was more pained at the falling levels of political discourse than the personal attacks unleashed on her family. “What kind of election campaign is this? For a political attack on the Congress, the opponents are targeting the family by attacking my husband. I feel strongly about it,” she remarked, during her campaign for her mother, Congress president in Rae Bareli. Priyanka, sister of Rahul Gandhi, pointed out that at a time when the problems of the people had to be discussed the opponents were targeting and running down her family. Priyanka said, “Such attacks give me more determination to fight for the Congress party.” Thanking people for their support over the years, she said, “You have given my family, my mother a lot. It is a big thing that we have been able to work with you. There is a relationship between you all and my family. I feel it is difficult to ask you anything because you have always given so much all along. But still I have to ask you to vote for my mother. I do not want you to vote just for my mother. I want you all to vote for the country. A country that moves unitedly.”

Harking back to Indira Gandhi, Priyanka said the lesson she learnt from her grandmother was never to be cowed down by vicious attacks. Indira Gandhi had always insisted that truth would ultimately triumph and this is exactly what she tells her children, when the children see the vicious attacks by the BJP on the television screens day in and day out. Truth becomes the armour, Indira used to tell Priyanka.

Priyanka has raised the more fundamental question whether the Robert Vadra land deals was a legitimate issue of political debate for BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, who ostensibly pegged his campaign on development and good governance and has been hurling barbs at the Shehzada (Rahul Gandhi) and Damadji or Jijaji (Robert Vadra).

Significantly, a few months ago, the Supreme Court refused to order an investigation into Robert Vadra's property deals, stating a person “cannot be called a sinner merely because he is linked to a politician.” The Haryana government has denied charges that Robert Vadra was given special treatment.

BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi started targeting Robert Vadra, saying if Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s mother-son duo was not enough, son-in-law Robert Vadra has also joined them.

Modi asks his audiences if there was anyone in the rally, who could earn Rs 50 crore in three months without investing a single paise? “Is anyone among you a magician who knows such a trick. This trick is known only to Shehzaade's family," he said.