‘Baseless charges, sadak chhap bhasha’: BJP hits out at Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Wednesday dismissed as "baseless" Rahul Gandhi's accusations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi over India-US interim trade deal and alleged that the Leader of Opposition took the parliamentary decorum to the lowest level with "street language" while speaking in the Lok Sabha.

This came after Gandhi, while participating in a debate on Union Budget in the Lower House, launched a blistering attack at Modi, alleging that the government "sold Bharat Mata" through the trade deal and that it was a "wholesale surrender" with India's energy security handed over to America and farmers' interests compromised.

Gandhi said he does not believe that any Indian prime minister, including Modi, would agree to such a deal unless there is a "chokehold" on him.

Reacting sharply, BJP national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi rejected Gandhi's accusations as "baseless" and alleged that the Congress leader took the parliamentary decorum and politics to the lowest level using "sadak chhap bhasha" (street language) and displaying "sadak chhap acharan" (street manners) while speaking in the House.

"Once again, in his usual slanderous style, he repeatedly levelled baseless and false allegations, filled with hatred towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi, despite the Chair repeatedly asking him to refrain from doing so," he told a press conference at the BJP headquarters here.

Trivedi condemned Gandhi's remarks and said, "If King James I was the wisest fool in Christendom, we can say Rahul Gandhi is the wisest fool in the Congressdom." "He alleged that the country was sold. I think if he had even a general understanding of diplomacy and economic policies, he would not have used such baseless allegations," the BJP Rajya Sabha MP added.