KC Venugopal hits back after BJP’s notice to cancel Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha membership

New Delhi: Congress general secretary K C Venugopal on Thursday launched a sharp attack on the government after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey submitted a notice seeking a ‘substantive motion’ against Rahul Gandhi.

“We are not bothered about any motions and if you want to hang us, we are ready for that also,” Venugopal declared, following Dubey’s demand that Gandhi’s Lok Sabha membership be cancelled and that he be barred from contesting elections for life.

Dubey alleged in his notice that the Leader of the Opposition had “colluded” with anti-India elements abroad, citing links with organisations such as the Soros Foundation, USAID and the Ford Foundation.

Venugopal, however, defended Gandhi and criticised the expunging of his remarks from Wednesday’s parliamentary records. Questions were asked as to why we took an “extreme position” to submit a notice for the removal of the Lok Sabha speaker. The answer to that is “we have not been getting justice from the chair”, he said.

He accused the government of double standards, claiming opposition voices were being silenced. “Whatever Rahul ji said is completely expunged from the records. Whatever Nirmala Sitharaman said, the same remarks were included in the records. The government has double standards... This Parliament is running for the government, not for the opposition,” Venugopal argued.

Asked about the ruling party’s actions against Gandhi’s budget speech remarks, he retorted, “Which privilege has Rahul Gandhi broken? They removed his membership last time. What happened afterwards was that people ensured his victory with more votes compared to that of Modi ji... We are not bothered about any motions, if you want to hang us, we are ready for that also... we will continue to tell the truth in Parliament.”

PTI