NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday trained his guns at Rahul Gandhi’s “traitor” remark and accused the Congress leader of insulting the Sikhs. “The prince of Congress called Bittu ‘gaddar’ becuase he is a Sikh. The Congress has hated towards Sikhs and has always insulted the Sikh community,” Prime Minister Modi said in his reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in Rajya Sabha.“Congress’s gaddar remark has insulted the Sikhs and the Gurus. We will not tolerate this,” the Prime Minister said and wondered what stopped the Congress leader from tendering an apology.Rahul Gandhi had on Wednesday exchanged barbs with former party colleague and Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu in Parliament premises. In videos released by the Congress, Gandhi was heard calling Bittu “a traitor” and the minister retorting with “desh ke dushman” (enemy of the nation) jibe.The incident took place right outside Parliament’s Makar Dwar, the main entrance which MPs take to enter the new Parliament building, where Gandhi was standing in solidarity with suspended Congress MPs, mostly from Punjab.As soon as he was about to speak, Bittu passed by, and remarked, “they (suspended Congress MPs) are sitting here as if they have won a war”.Rahul hit back, “The thing is, here is a traitor walking right by. Take a look at the face. How he looks.”Rahul then extended his hand towards Bittu for a handshake, and said, “Hello brother, my traitor friend.”“Don’t worry, you will come back (to the Congress)”, he added addressing the Union minister of state for railways and food processing.Bittu, however, declined to shake hands with Rahul and, while pointing to him, said, “desh ke dushman.”The Union minister was seen in the videos springing past the Makar Dwar stairs, repeating his “desh ke dushman” charge while pointing at the Congress leaders and suspended MPs, who continued to jeer at him.
