"BJP twists his statements": Congress MP Rajeev Shukla on Rahul Gandhi Gandhi's 'fighting the state' remark

New Delhi [India], January 20 (ANI): Congress MP Rajeev Shukla on Monday defended Rahul Gandhi after an FIR was filed against Rahul Gandhi in Assam's Guwahati for his 'fighting the state' comment.
Shukla said that the BJP twisted Gandhi's statement and registered false FIRs against him.
"... BJP twists his (Rahul Gandhi's) statements and registers false FIRs against him, and that too in the states where they are in power. So that the police would favour them and harass Rahul Gandhi... They have done this earlier in the BJP-governed states... And then the SC had to intervene... It is their habit to harass the Opposition to retain the power..." Congress MP said.
Attacking the BJP, he further said, "As soon as a criminal joins the BJP, he does not remain a criminal anymore... First, the BJP calls them criminals, but they become pure as soon as they join the BJP..."
Earlier speaking about MahaKumbh, the Congress leader Rajiv Shukla said, "... Everyone will go; we will also go... Kumbh belongs to everyone. Nehru Ji and Indira Ji used to go to every Kumbh... We will go too. The Congress leaders of Uttar Pradesh have already been visiting. It is not a political congregation; it is a congregation of Sadhus and saints. They are taking the credit for that too. Instead of giving credit to the saints, they are trying to take credit for themselves. There are advertisements, posters and hoardings everywhere..."
The Congress' defence of the Lok Sabha LoP come after an FIR was registered against him at the Pan Bazar Police Station in Guwahati.
Rahul Gandhi made the statement on January 15, 2025, during the inauguration of the Congress Party's new headquarters at Kotla Road in Delhi. The FIR was registered under sections 152 and 197(1)d of the BNS for "acts endangering sovereignty unity and integrity of India," a cognisable and non-bailable offence.
"Our ideology, like the RSS ideology, is thousands of years old and it has been fighting the RSS ideology for thousands of years. Do not think that we are fighting a fair fight. There is no fairness in this. If you believe that we are fighting a political organisation called the BJP or RSS, you have not understood what is going on. The BJP and the RSS have captured every single institution of our country. We are now fighting the BJP, the RSS and the Indian state itself," Gandhi said. (ANI)