Bhubaneswar, August 5: Odisha Congress president Bhakta Charan Das on Tuesday strongly objected to comments made by the Supreme Court questioning Rahul Gandhi's remarks on Chinese incursion.
Das took issue with Justice Dipankar Datta’s remarks during a recent Supreme Court hearing, in which Gandhi was criticized for claiming that 2,000 square kilometers of Indian territory had been occupied by China. Das defended the Congress leader, arguing that criticism of the Modi government's handling of Chinese aggression should not be equated with questioning one's patriotism.
"Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi isn’t allowed to question China in Parliament. If he does it on social media, he’s asked if he’s ‘truly Indian’,” Das wrote on social media platform X. “Justice Dipankar Datta had no business to question Rahul Gandhi's ‘Indianness’ for criticising the Modi government’s failure on Chinese aggression."
Das further emphasized Gandhi's family legacy, noting, “His father and grandmother sacrificed their lives for our country. What more proof of 'Indianness' do they seek?"
This political row follows a recent Supreme Court hearing concerning Rahul Gandhi’s comments made after the 2022 clash between Indian and Chinese forces in Arunachal Pradesh’s Yangtse region. During the proceedings, a bench comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and Augustine George Masih questioned the basis of Gandhi's claim and expressed disapproval.
Justice Datta asked, “How do you get to know that 2,000 square kilometres of Indian territory was occupied by China? What is the credible material? If you are a true Indian, you would not say this. When there is a conflict across borders... can you say all this?"
The bench also questioned why Gandhi chose to air such claims on social media instead of raising them in Parliament. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing Gandhi, was asked to explain the reasoning behind this decision.
