Prashant Kishor Quotes Vajpayee’s Famous Line to Target BJP

New Delhi: Political strategist turned political activist Prashant Kishor on Saturday termed Rahul Gandhi’s sentencing in the 2019 defamation case as well as disqualification from Lok Sabha as “excessive”.

He reminded the BJP government at the Centre of a famous line by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, “chhote mann se koi bada nahin ban jaata” , which means that nobody becomes great with a petty heart.

“Two years in prison seems to be excessive for what is essentially a defamation case”, Kishor said.

“The ruling dispensation may hide behind technicalities and insist that Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification was inevitable, given his conviction. I would still say they should have taken a leaf out of the book of Vajpayee, their own revered leader, and not rushed to disqualify Rahul Gandhi,” he said.

“They (the BJP) are in power today. The onus was on them to have shown a big heart. They should have waited for a few days and allowed the aggrieved party to appeal and acted only if no relief was in sight”, he said.

It may be noted that Prashant Kishor played a key role in bringing BJP and Narendra Modi to power in 2014. He shot into the limelight with his successful Lok Sabha poll campaign for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.

Prashant Kishor also added that Congress was unprepared to reach out to the masses with the message that it has been wronged.

Rahul Gandhi was convicted by a Surat court on Thursday and sentenced to two years in jail over his “Modi surname” remark at a rally.