Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi

New Delhi, Oct 4: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the Gandhi family for allegedly remaining “silent” over Indian pilot Captain Smit Machchhar’s courageous act that helped save more than 170 lives aboard a flydubai flight, alleging that one ideology “silently supports terror”.

The BJP's attack came days after Captain Machchhar helped avert a major in-flight crisis aboard flydubai flight FZ1073 despite being attacked by his co-pilot. The aircraft was subsequently diverted to Tabuk in Saudi Arabia, while the Indian pilot suffered serious injuries after helping prevent a potentially major disaster.

Addressing a press conference, BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi said there were also some “embarrassing moments” for India on an otherwise proud occasion.

“On such a proud occasion for India, there are also some embarrassing moments. Not a single word, social media post or press statement has come from the first family of Congress for Captain Smit. This raises a question -- the ‘Queen Mother’ of the first family, Sonia Ji, who had tears in her eyes for the accused in the Batla House encounter, does not have any tone of compassion for Captain Smit,” he said.

Taking a jibe at Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Trivedi said, “The princess who used to carry a bag depicting ‘support to Palestine’, has not displayed any sympathy now (for the Indian pilot).”

Referring to Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s social media posts on Gaza, the BJP leader said, “It seems that the prince who was so affected by the happenings in Gaza has today become so scared for his vote bank that he has not uttered a word over the incident.”

Trivedi described the issue as a conflict between two ideologies.

“One ideology, while silently supporting terror, strikes like an axe...tearing apart India's constitutional institutions and social fabric, and effectively steering the nation's ship towards a crash. Then there is the other perspective, the one we represent, which is willing to endure blows and risk lives to save the ship,” he said.

He directly questioned the Congress leadership over its alleged past positions on controversial figures and incidents.

“Today, we want to directly ask the Congress party: why is it that those who called Zakir Naik a ‘messiah’ of peace, who called Afzal Guru a victim of circumstances, who called Burhan Wani a misguided youth, who called Yakub Memon's hanging a judicial killing, and who shed tears over the Batla House encounter -- why are they not uttering a single word for Captain Smit Machchhar who displayed such valour and risked his own life to save so many people? We demand a direct answer on this from the top leadership of Congress,” Trivedi said.

The BJP leader also attacked the Congress over the appointment of MP Imran Masood as the party’s Working President in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh.

“On the auspicious occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, they appointed Imran Masood, who became infamous for his objectionable remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the working president in Uttar Pradesh. You can imagine what his conduct and record must have been,” he said.

Trivedi further referred to Masood’s controversial remarks during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, saying, “When Masood made that shameful statement during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections about cutting Modi ji into pieces, he was a member of the Samajwadi Party, not the Congress. Despite this, Rahul Gandhi attended Masood's election rally, respectfully brought him into the Congress, even made him contest the Lok Sabha polls, and today made him the Working President...this shows the broad differences between Mahatma Gandhi and ‘today's Gandhis’.”

Trivedi also questioned the appointment of Aradhana Misra as the new Uttar Pradesh Congress chief.

“A video had surfaced where she was stopping workers of her own party from raising slogans of ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’,” he alleged.

“Rahul Gandhi should answer why such people were appointed as office-bearers,” he asserted.

Citing remarks made by Samajwadi Party and Congress leaders ahead of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Trivedi claimed that the two parties were engaged in infighting despite being allies.

“They are infighting within their alliance itself,” he said.