‘Modi Ji, your karma awaits you’, tweets Rahul Gandhi after PM slanders his father

While responding to charges of corruption against him on the Rafale deal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday dragged former PM Rajiv Gandhi, assassinated 28 years ago in 1991 by terrorists, into the debate. He referred to Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who has been consistently questioned his role in the Rafale deal and said, “Your father was termed ‘Mr. Clean’ by his courtiers, but his life ended as ‘Bhrashtachari No:1’.”

Rahul Gandhi replied with the following tweet,

“Modi Ji, The battle is over. Your Karma awaits you. Projecting your inner beliefs about yourself onto my father won’t protect you. All my love and a huge hug. Rahul”

Congress President’s tweet on Sunday around Noon had been retweeted 12 thousand times in three hours and had received 36 thousand likes on Twitter.

Even as the polite and firm response from Rahul Gandhi won the grudging admiration of even his detractors, the crass statement of the Prime Minister triggered massive outrage. The Prime Minister, who has been increasingly abusive during the election campaign, looks tired and haggard and clearly the pressure of single-handedly steering the BJP is taking a toll on him.

Former Union Minister P. Chidambaram hit back at the PM with a series of tweets.

"Mr. Modi has crossed all limits of propriety and decency by defaming a man (Rajiv Gandhi) who died in 1991," Mr. Chidambaram wrote. He added that the charges against Rajiv Gandhi were dropped by the Delhi High Court.

"Does Mr Modi read anything at all? Does he know that the charge against Mr. Rajiv Gandhi was thrown out by the High Court, Delhi as 'completely baseless?” he added before pointing out that it was a BJP government that decided not to file an appeal in the Supreme Court against the said HC judgment. 'De mortuis nihil nisi bonum'. Of the dead, speaking nothing but the good. Has the PM heard of this ancient wisdom? Does any religion allow anyone to speak ill of the dead?” he wondered aloud.

Historian Audrey Truschke tweeted : I’m seeing people dismiss Modi mocking a dead patriot. They say it only reflects poorly on him, smacks of desperation, signals a mental problem. From someone who lives in Trump’s America, my two cents: Take This Stuff Seriously. It isn’t about Modi but about India.

Journalist and editor Sagarika Ghosh tweeted, Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was brutally killed by the enemies of India. Will abusing the assassinated former PM in public actually bring in votes? If so, India is wallowing in a pit of moral degradation”.

Shekhar Gupta, editor and commentator, tweeted, “Rajiv was a patriot who ruled at a very tough juncture, his degree of difficulty unfairly masked by the size of his mandate.”

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of Rajiv Gandhi and sister of the Congress President, tweeted in Hindi and declared that people of Amethi would give a befitting reply to the insult.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, commentator and one-time aide of BJP leader L.K. Advani also tweeted to express his revulsion and anguish: Has India seen a PM who is so full of himself, and so free of any political morality? #RajivGandhi ended his life as Martyr-PM No 2, not as "Bhrashtachari No1" (His mother was Martyr-PM No 1)