New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday launched a fresh attack on the Congress and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi over the shirtless protest staged by the party’s youth wing at the AI Impact Summit and the remarks that followed it.
Citing an example from the tenure of late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru regarding the succession to the Holkar dynasty, the BJP questioned why the Congress was ignoring Pandit Nehru’s own views on national identity and representation.
The party suggested that if Pandit Nehru had once believed that a child born to a foreigner should not represent the nation, the Congress should reflect on that position today. The remarks were seen as an indirect reference to Rahul Gandhi, whose mother Sonia Gandhi is of Italian origin.
BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya also shared a video clip of Rahul Gandhi on social media in which the Congress leader appeared to smile and comment about the dramatic protest at the AI Impact Summit.
In the video, Rahul Gandhi was heard saying, “Kar diya kaam Youth Congress walo ne (Youth Congress members have done the job)”, referring to the demonstration carried out by members of the Indian Youth Congress.
Indian Youth Congress workers had staged a ‘shirtless’ protest at the India AI Impact Summit held in New Delhi on February 20. The protesters breached security at the Bharat Mandapam venue and removed their shirts to reveal T-shirts carrying slogans critical of the government and India-US trade agreements.
The incident drew criticism from across the political spectrum, including from some of the Congress party’s allies within the INDIA bloc, with several leaders accusing the protest of damaging the country’s image at an international platform.
Sharing the video on X, Amit Malviya criticised Rahul Gandhi’s reaction and said, “Rahul Gandhi proudly declared, ‘Youth Congress members have done the job’, after Youth Congress workers staged a naked protest to disrupt the prestigious AI Summit in Delhi, embarrassing India on a global platform. Let that sink in.”
He further said, “When the world’s leading technology experts, policymakers, and innovators were discussing the future of Artificial Intelligence, the Congress party thought the best way to represent India was through disruption and indecency.”
Referring to an episode from the 1950s, Malviya brought up the issue of succession to the Indore throne after the death of Maharaja Yeshwantrao Holkar II.
“The irony is that even Jawaharlal Nehru, whom the Congress treats as its ideological fountainhead, once took a very different view about national character and loyalty,” he said.
“In the 1950s, when the question of succession to the Indore throne arose after the death of Maharaja Yeshwantrao Holkar II, the issue was whether his American-born son, Richard Holkar, from his American wife, could inherit the legacy of the Holkar dynasty,” Malviya wrote.
According to him, after consultations involving leaders of the time, including President Rajendra Prasad and Home Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Pandit Nehru took a clear position on the matter.
“After deliberation involving the government of the day, including Rajendra Prasad and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Nehru took a clear position: the heir to the throne should be the child born of an Indian mother,” Malviya said.
He added that the decision reflected the sentiments of a newly-independent country, where ideas of national identity, loyalty and civilisational belonging were strongly emphasised.
“Eventually, the government recognised Princess Usha Devi Raje Sahib Holkar, daughter of the Maharaja from his Indian wife, as the rightful inheritor of the Holkar legacy,” he said.
“Nehru himself later justified this by saying that her recognition stemmed from the fact that she belonged by birth to the Holkar dynasty,” Malviya added.
He further argued that the example demonstrated how questions of national identity were viewed at the time.
“The precedent was clear: National identity and loyalty were not abstract ideas; they were deeply rooted in origin and belonging. Which brings us back to Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party today. If even Jawaharlal Nehru believed that a child born of a foreigner could not be trusted with the responsibility of representing the nation, why can’t the Congress see what Nehru himself said?” Malviya questioned.
“Perhaps that explains why today they celebrate protests that humiliate India on the world stage rather than standing up for the country’s dignity,” he added.
(IANS)
