Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday lashed out at Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress leader  Rahul Gandhi for his remarks in the US on reservation.

As long as the BJP is there, neither can anyone abolish reservations nor can anyone mess with the nation’s security, Shah said in a social media post on X.

His remarks come after Gandhi, said that the Congress party will think of scrapping reservation when India becomes a fair place, which it is not. The Rae Bareli MP made his comments during an interaction with students and faculty at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, on September 9.   

Hitting out at Gandhi, Shah said standing with forces that conspire to divide the country and making anti-national statements have become a habit for the Congress party and its leader.

“Whether it is supporting the JKNC’s anti-national and anti-reservation agenda in Jammu and Kashmir or making anti-India statements on foreign platforms, Gandhi has always threatened the nation’s security and hurt sentiments,” the senior BJP leader said.  

Gandhi’s statement lays bare the Congress’s politics of causing rifts along the lines of regionalism, religion, and linguistic differences, Shah said.

By speaking about abolishing reservations in the country, Gandhi has once again brought the Congress’s anti-reservation face to the forefront, he retorted at Gandhi.

“The thoughts that were in his mind eventually found their way out as words. I want to tell Rahul Gandhi that as long as the BJP is there, neither can anyone abolish reservations nor can anyone mess with the nation’s security” Shah said.

Earlier during his interaction with the students and faculty at the University, Gandhi said, “When you look at the financial numbers, then tribals get 10 paise out of 100 rupees; Dalits get 5 rupees out of 100 rupees, and OBCs get a similar number. The fact of the matter is that they’re not getting participation.”

“The problem is that 90 per cent of India is not able to play. Go through the list of every single business leader in India. I’ve done it. Show me the tribal name. Show me the Dalit name. Show me the OBC name. Out of the top 200, I think there’s one OBC. They’re 50 per cent of India. But we’re not treating the symptom, he said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday slammed BJP after President Droupadi Murmu took cognisance of the memorandum submitted by the saffron party and forwarded it to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), seeking action on BJP’s demands to dismiss Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led government in Delhi.

A delegation of BJP MLAs met President Murmu on August 30 and submitted a memorandum, urging her urgent intervention in the Constitutional crisis plaguing Delhi due to Kejriwal’s imprisonment.

Retorting sharply at BJP, Delhi Minister Atishi accused the saffron party of conspiring to topple the Kejriwal government through the back door by imposition of the President’s rule in Delhi.

The accusation comes a day after the Opposition BJP stated in the memorandum that Delhi was facing a constitutional crisis and demanded proper attention on the matter from the MHA.

AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh also lashed out at the BJP, declaring that his party is prepared for the elections.

“If BJP feels that it wants to lose quickly, then it should announce the date of Delhi Assembly elections tomorrow itself. We are ready for the elections,” Singh said.

Talking to PTI, Atishi said that if the Kejriwal government is toppled, the Delhiites will give a befitting reply by giving zero seats to the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections and the AAP will win all the 70 seats.

Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta on Monday alleged that paralysis of governance in Delhi was caused by Chief Minister Kejriwal being in jail for more than four months on serious corruption charges in the excise policy case.

Atishi said the BJP’s only job is to topple the elected governments in the country through its “Operation Lotus” as happened in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Manipur.

“They also tried Operation Lotus in Delhi to topple the government by poaching the AAP MLAs, but they failed. Now, they are conspiring to impose the President’s Rule through the back door to topple the popular government of Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi,” she alleged.

The elections to the 70 seats of the Delhi Assembly are due early next year.

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah on Sunday said the BJP top brass was focussing its election campaign on Jammu as they want to intimidate the Hindu voters of Jammu and Kashmir by creating false fears.

Abdullah also accused the BJP of misleading the people by claiming that terrorism would rise again if the National Conference and Congress alliance came to power in Jammu and Kashmir.

“BJP wants to threaten the Hindu community. They think the Hindus will vote for them but today the Hindus have changed. First, they sought votes in the name of Ram and now they want to intimidate them,”  Abdullah charged.

National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah paid tributes to the founding leader of the All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference and father of Farooq Abdullah, Sheikh Abdullah on his 42nd death anniversary, in Srinagar.

Speaking to reporters after paying tribute, he said BJP repealed Article 370 of the Constitution but did terrorism end. Terrorism is rising again and it is all their responsibility, he added.

Abdullah was responding to a question on why Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were campaigning in Jammu while ignoring Kashmir.

Reacting to Shah’s criticism of the NC-Congress coalition during his visit to Jammu, the former Chief Minister said he was only trying to malign his party.

“National Conference will win. I only want to say to Amit Shah that we are against the India they want to create. The country belongs to everyone. Those who are raising their voice against Muslims should know that Muslims have also sacrificed their lives for the freedom of this country,” he said.

 “But, God willing they won’t succeed. Our efforts will pave the way to serve for the betterment of our people. The Home Minister can keep saying as much about us as he wants but I want to tell him that we are against that Bharat, which they want to create. Bharat belongs to all — Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists.

“We are not intruders. We and not snatching away mangalsutra. Muslims have an equal contribution towards the freedom of India,” he added.

On restoration of statehood, Abdullah said the NC-Congress alliance would get it back. On BJP manifesto for Jammu and Kashmir polls, he said it was just a “jumla” (rhetoric).