Shah slams Rahul’s ‘chai-pakoda’ protest, says it defamed India

Guwahati: Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday said leader of opposition Rahul Gandhi tarnished India’s image globally with his “chai-pakoda” protest. Speaking during a govt event, Shah criticised Rahul for holding a tea-and-snacks protest on the steps of parliament, saying that, in trying to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP, he ended up opposing India.

Rahul Gandhi staged the protest with tea and biscuits on the Parliament steps recently to highlight the LPG cylinder shortage. Shah also accused Rahul of defaming India during the AI Summit in Delhi.




“Sometimes he (Rahul Gandhi) sits at Parliament’s doorstep eating chai-pakoda. He does not know where to eat breakfast. This Parliament is the supreme institution of our democracy. Staging a sit-in there is also not a democratic value. But he went two steps beyond with a sit-in,” Shah said.

He said that the “chai-pakoda” protest by Congress and Rahul Gandhi was defaming India across the world.

On the previous Congress youths’ protest at the AI Summit, Shah said that Congress attempted to defame India by stripping clothes off on the summit stage. “All of us are in politics — we too were in the opposition. We staged sit-ins hundreds of times and held demonstrations. There is a place for that,” Shah added.

He said that during the AI Summit, people from across the world came to see India, to see India’s preparations, and to invest in India. “They turned that platform into a stage for their personal politics and staged such a disgusting demonstration,” he said.

Top CEOs of companies from 80 countries and heads of state from 22 countries attended the summit. There were numerous training sessions and industry sessions as well during the AI Summit.

“I want to say to Rahul Gandhi from this platform today that, while opposing Narendra Modi, while opposing BJP, you ended up opposing India,” Shah said.

Shah alleged that in both these incidents, the leader of opposition and senior Congress leaders acted on Rahul Gandhi’s instructions, with his participation and involvement. “I want to strongly condemn this, and I do not believe that anyone in the country should support this kind of activism. Your opposition is with us — oppose us with all the strength you have; oppose us as much as you can. You (Rahul) do not speak in parliament, you run away, and where people from across the world came to see India’s strength, to see the capability of India’s youth, there you diminish their prospects and undermine the people of India,” Shah said.

He criticised Rahul, saying that the leader of opposition, instead of showing the decency to apologise for such behaviour, said that those who stripped and protested half-naked were Congress’s brave lions. “I do not believe that any responsible political party that does this gets the support of the people of this country,” Shah said.