Rahul Gandhi is hallucinating: BJP on his Pegasus allegation at Cambridge

Addressing a press conference, BJP spokesperson Tom Vadakkan said Gandhi was "hallucinating" and makes such claims as he wants to create headlines wherever he goes.

New Delhi: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Tom Vaddakan on Friday said Gandhi is 'hallucinating' things and his statement at the Cambridge was a fallout of that. "What we can say for Rahul Gandhi's hallucinations. If he makes his (Congress) MoU with China public, we will be interested and the people of India will also like to know. Who is interested in his telephone conversations," he said while addressing a press conference.

Vaddakkan said BJP does not need to tap Gandhi's phone, deeming the allegation as baseless. Hitting out at Gandhi, "Vaddakkan said when Indians are being attacked outside the country, he does not say anything and when he goes abroad, he makes statements against India's democracy."

Earlier while addressing Cambridge University, Gandhi had alleged that intelligence officers had asked him to be careful while speaking on his phone as it had Pegasus. He said that many other politicians had the experience of having this spying device on their phones.

Yet again questioning BBC over its source of funding, Vaddakkan said that if BBC's documentary and the Hindenburg report were seen in a single frame, then there are many things that can be observed. "Under the system of taxation that exists in the country, tax has to be paid. While it was not even a tax raid, it was just a survey. Why didn't BBC make a documentary on it? Also, they should disclose the source of their funding," he said.

Hitting back on Gandhi, Union Minister Anurag Thakur wondered what prevented Gandhi and other Congress leaders from submitting their phones to a Supreme Court-appointed technical committee that probed the Pegasus snooping issue.

"We can understand his hatred towards the Prime Minister, but the conspiracy to malign the country on foreign soil with the help of foreign friends raises questions on the agenda of the Congress," Thakur, the Information and Broadcasting minister, told reporters in Delhi. Thakur said Gandhi was aware of the electoral rout the Congress was facing in the assembly elections and had resorted to levelling allegations from foreign soil.

"Once again, the Congress lost in the elections but their bankruptcy was evident when they lost no opportunity to malign India from foreign soil," Thakur said. He further said Gandhi should have at least listened to what Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had to say about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla tweeted, "After the spectacular no-show of the Bharat Jodo Yatra, where Congress has been consigned to irrelevance in three states with a minority & tribal population, you have the immature dynast making the same ramblings & rantings that have been rejected by courts & court of public opinion!"

Gandhi, who gave a presentation, noted that in the Constitution, India is described as a Union of States and that Union requires negotiation and conversation. He also showed slides on the screen of him being confronted by police officers outside Parliament in New Delhi.

"It is that negotiation that is coming under attack and threat... you would have also heard about the attack on the minorities and press," he said, adding that protecting and defending Indian democracy is more than just about India but about defending the "democratic structure and democratic system on the planet".

Gandhi is on a week-long tour of the UK and is scheduled to hold some closed-door sessions on Big Data and Democracy and India-China relations at Cambridge University. Later in the week, he will interact with representatives of the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) UK chapter and also address an "Indian Diaspora Conference" planned over the weekend in London.