Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 6: The BJP has taken strong objections and ridiculed the Congress leader and the former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan for his remarks on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi while drawinga parallel with Venezuela where the president and his wife were abducted from their bedroom by the American secret service at the behest of the President Donald Trump.
The BJP slammed the Congress for a “new low every day” even as Chavan’s remarks led to a barrage of ridicule and jokes on social media, all pointed at him. The BJP leader Pradeep Bhandari took to X to hit out at the former Maharashtra chief minister. “Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan shamelessly comparing India’s situation with Venezuela. By asking whether ‘what happened in Venezuela can happen in India’, Congress is making its ANTI INDIA MINDSET clear,” the BJP national spokesperson said in a post on X.
The attack from the BJP comes after Chavan, while speaking on US tariffs on India, purportedly asked whether what happened with Venezuela could happen with India. The Congress leader was making an apparent reference to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife by US forces last week.
Referring to the night-time US military action in Venezuela that led to the capture of President Nicolas Maduro, the Congress leader asked a question, which many on social media took as a joke due to its absurdity: “… Will something like what happened in Venezuela happen in India? Will Mr Trump kidnap our prime minister?”
Former Jammu and Kashmir top cop SP Vaid slammed the Congress leader for saying something that was “humiliating for the entire country.” Many on social media described Chavan’s comments with words like “brain dead”, “illiterate”, “fool,” etc, pointing out the ridiculousness of it all, especially with a nuclear power like India.
Chavan, who has served as Maharashtra chief minister and a Union minister during his long career, picked up from where Kharge left in his attack on PM Modi over the US’ steep tariffs on India. “With a 50 per cent tariff, trade is simply not possible. In effect, this amounts to blocking India-US trade, especially exports from India to the United States. Since a direct ban cannot be imposed, tariffs have been used as a tool to stop trade. India will have to bear this,” Chavan said, building up his attack.
“The profits that our people earlier earned from exports to the US will no longer be available. We will have to look for alternative markets, and efforts in that direction are already underway,” he said. Then he sprung the “what next” question: what if Trump did the same with India what it did with Venezuela?
Chavan’s comment came a day after Kharge attacked PM Modi in connection with a comment by Trump, this time not on Operation Sindoor, but India’s purchase of Russian oil. Trump had said India showed willingness to reduce its import of Russian oil after the US imposed steep tariffs on India last year for buying oil from a country that the US sees as the aggressor in Ukraine. This comment was heard in an audio clip, the Congress chief said.
“Modi wanted to make me happy,” the US President whose unconventional methods of dealing even with heads of States are well-known, said in the audio clip. Kharge, citing Trump’s comment, took a swipe at PM Modi, whose friendship with the US President has been billed as the meeting of the world’s two largest democracies.
“I heard an audio today wherein Trump said (on Russian oil) that he knows that Modi respects him and listens to him. What does this mean? It means that Modi is under his control. I am reminded of a dialogue from Mr India – ‘Mogambo Khush Hua’. After the ambassador spoke to him, Trump said ‘Mogambo Khush Hua’,” Kharge said.
After recording negative growth for two consecutive months, India’s merchandise exports to the US rose 22.61 per cent to $6.98 billion in November despite the steep tariffs on domestic goods. During the April-November period of this fiscal year, the country’s exports to the US increased 11.38 per cent to $59.04 billion, while imports rose 13.49 per cent to $35.4 billion.
The former Jammu and Kashmir top cop who has been tracking geopolitical and security matters closely, and whose experience in the intersection of foreign and domestic threats is well-known during his time, shot a question at Chavan that aimed at the Congress’s existential core.
“Thinking that what Trump did to Venezuela and Maduro should happen to Narendra Modi is humiliating for the entire country. At least think before you speak, Prithviraj Chavan. Or is this the actual ideology of the Congress now coming out in the open?” Vaid asked.
“It shows that some Congress leaders have so much frustration and they are giving anti-India statements…Why didn’t your head hang in shame before saying this. Are you not a countryman? It is humiliating for Venezuela what Trump and US did with them. You want this to happen with your country? You hate Modji so much?” Vaid said in a video message on X.
Last Saturday, US President Donald Trump said the US had captured President Nicolas Maduro and flew him out of Venezuela after a series of airstrikes. Maduro faces a trial in New York for narco-terrorism charges.