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New Delhi: On Wednesday, The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his ‘panauti’ (bad omen) remark directed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Gandhi, while addressing a public meeting in poll-bound Rajasthan on Tuesday, had said, “”Panauti… Panauti… Panauti… our boys were well on their way to winning the world cup but Panauti made them lose… the people of this country know.”
Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Gandhi’s comments about the Prime Minister of the country are shameful. Targeting the Congress, he said that Rahul Gandhi has shown his true colors but he should remember how the Congress sank in Gujarat after his mother called the then Gujarat Chief Minister Modi a ‘merchant of death’. Rahul Gandhi, at a poll rally in Rajasthan’s Jalore on Tuesday, called PM Modi a ‘panauti’ and said his entry made India lose the 2023 World Cup final match against Australia last Sunday.
He added, “He has shown his true colours but he must remember as to how the Congress sank in Gujarat after his mother Sonia Gandhi called Modi, the then chief minister of the state, ‘maut ka saudagar’. The Wayanad MP said, “Ache bhale hamare ladke waha pe World Cup jeet jaate, par panauti harwa diya (our boys were almost winning the World Cup, but the ‘bad omen’ made them lose).”The term ‘panauti’ has been trending on the internet since Australia defeated India in the final match, which was attended by Prime Minister Modi at the Ahmedabad stadium named after him.
Rahul Gandhi’s remarks invited sharp criticism from the BJP, which called the comments “shameful and disgraceful” and demanded an apology. Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said his comments were a sign of “desperation and mental instability”.
“There is more than irony or hypocrisy at work here – that a 55 years old who has never worked a day in his life, whose family has exploited the country like parasites for decades with their corruption and whose govt destroyed the country economically in the lost decade..The reason is that Modi is a nightmare “for the crooks of the Congress, for enemies of India and terrorists”, he said.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leaders including KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh and others came out in support of Rahul Gandhi. Congress spokesperson Pawan Kheda tweet a video today with Panauti saying that our friends from the media are getting very emotional today. We are advised on language limitations. Hey then, where was this ‘Gyan Chand’ when the BJP leader was saying words like ‘Rahu Kaal’, ‘Pappu’, ‘Murkhon ke Sardar’? Show a tweet where the knowledge of language limitations is shared with the BJP.
