Rahul Gandhi performs aarti at Narmada ghat; Smriti Irani takes a dig at Congress leader

Union minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani on Friday took a potshot at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and posted his upside-down picture on Twitter while performing aarti at Narmada Ghat in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh. Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district on Friday where they performed ‘aarti’ at the Bramhapuri Ghat. They also offered prayers at the famous Omkareshwar Temple on a hillock by the river that houses one of the 12 ‘jyotirlingas’. 

Irani, who is in Surat to address the party’s women wing workers as part of the campaign for the Gujarat Assembly elections, tweeted Gandhi’s picture where he can be seen wearing an uttariya, a religious scarf, with Om written on it in an upside-down manner.   

Earlier in the day, the union minister targeted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over alleged shouting of the slogan `Pakistan Zindabad’ during his ongoing Bharat Jodo Yatra. Gandhi blamed the BJP for tampering with a video of the Yatra in which someone is purportedly heard shouting the slogan `Pakistan Zindabad’.  

Irani said: “Pakistan Zindabad slogans were shouted during Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra. This is not the first time someone has insulted India during the former Congress president’s Yatra. I want to ask Rahul Gandhi how many more such persons you will take along in your caravan?”  

Irani vs Gandhi 

Irani has time to time criticised Rahul Gandhi’s leadership and policies. Earlier this month while addressing a rally in Himachal Pradesh, Irani said ever since she dispatched Rahul Gandhi from Amethi, he has been running around the country trying to connect the country. 

In the 2019 General Elections, Irani defeated Gandhi in Amethi, a Congress stronghold for decades. She won by over 55,000 votes – delivering a massive shock to the Congress as the party had never lost from Amethi. During her recent visit to Amethi in November, the union minister said: “The people blessed Rahul Gandhi and the Gandhi family by electing them as public representatives from Amethi (previously). But, they gave nothing to the people except deceit and just one glimpse in five years,” she said.

Bharat Jodo Yatra 

Congress’s Bharat Jodo Yatra is an ongoing mass movement where Rahul Gandhi is trying to mobilise the party cadre and the general public. The Yatra is from Kanyakumari (the southern tip of the peninsula) to the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (JK). It will cover a distance of 3,570 kilometres over 150 days. 

Priyanka Gandhi had for the first time joined the Yatra this week. Her family also joined her for the aarti at the Narmada river.