Rahul Gandhi was in Vietnam during Holi, New Year :::: BJP smells rat ....questions why such 'extraordinary fondness for Vietnam'

Two BJP leaders have questioned the rationale behind Leader of the Opposition and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's extraordinary love for Vietnam.

Former Minister and BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad raised concerns over Rahul Gandhi's 'curious' and 'extraordinary fondness for Vietnam', while saffron party's IT cell chief Amit Malviya claimed it posed serious national security questions.

Rahul Gandhi's recent trip to Vietnam comes amid the ongoing Budget session in Parliament and months after he left for the that country during the seven-day mourning period for India's former Prime Minister and Congress leader Dr Manmohan Singh.

Rahul's last trip to Vietnam following Manmohan Singh's death on December 26 also drew sharp criticism.

The saffron party had said that the Congress lawmaker from Uttar Pradesh left for New Year's celebrations when the "country is (was) mourning Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's demise".

"Rahul Gandhi politicised and exploited Dr. Singh's death for his expedient politics, but his contempt for him is unmissable," Malviya had said.

However, the Congress party then defended Rahul's visit to Vietnam, and had said - Rahul kept on visiting the country "to study its economic model".

"He has gone there to study their economic model," Congress leader Harish Rawat had remarked. 

Asking the Congress to reveal details about Rahul Gandhi's 'frequent' visits abroad, BJP's national IT cell head Amit Malviya took to X and said, "As the Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi holds a crucial position, and his numerous clandestine trips abroad, especially while Parliament is in session, raise serious questions about propriety and national security."

Addressing a press briefing, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "New Year's in Vietnam, Holi too in Vietnam? 

I have been told he has given 22 days' time in Vietnam. 

He hasn't even spent that much time in his own constituency, Rae Bareli." 

On Nov 8, 2019,  a high-decibel controversy broke out over the withdrawal of Special Protection Group (SPG) cover to members of the first family of the Congress party. 

"Since May 2014, Priyanka Gandhi has often levelled allegations that SPG officials were collecting her personal and confidential information and sharing it with unauthorised persons. She even threatened to drag top officials of the SPG to court," the sources said here.

Sources also said that Rahul Gandhi, during his visit to Banaskantha in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Gujarat in 2017, violated security norms himself and that could have endangered his life.

Much to the chagrin of concerned officials and security agencies, since 2015 till May 2019, Priyanka Gandhi did not use SPG BR vehicles for her travel on 339 occasions within Delhi and on 64 occasions at other places in the country.

Out of total 99 foreign visits that she has undertaken since 1991, she took SPG security cover only on 21 occasions and refused to take the security for other 78 visits, sources said.

"The SPG security cover cannot be a sense of entitlement. It is tax-payer's money," BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia told a private news channel in 2019. 

ends