Congress should stop personal attacks on Modi: Jaitley

After all the mudslinging and personalised attacks by both parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Arun Jaitley said he hoped the Congress would heed the advice of its own and refrain from making personal attacks on Narendra Modi.

The comment comes a day after Priyanka Gandhi said she was pained about the attacks on her husband Robert Vadra. Jaitley said while she wanted people to refrain from personal attacks, the Congress had been targeting Modi on a variety of issues, including his marital status. “Issues of probity are public issues. They are not personal issues,” he said, apparently referring to allegations relating to land deals against Vadra.

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Jaitley said he was glad Priyanka had made a statement on Vadra and added, “I only hope her immediate family and her party heed her advice.” He said Priyanka’s friends in the Congress would now hopefully realise that they had personalised their attack on Modi relating to his marital status, the snoopgate issue "without a shred of evidence".

Breaking her silence, Priyanka on Tuesday while campaigning in Rae Bareli had said: “When you watch TV, what do you see? Harsh words, humiliation of my family. A lot of things are said about my husband. I feel pained. I feel pained, not for myself, also not because somebody you are humiliating somebody and the truth is not being told... Every day I tell my children that the truth will prevail.... I feel pained at the kind of politics that has come to the fore in these elections.”

Though she did not name anybody, she was clearly referring to the BJP’s attack on Vadra. Some BJP leaders have said Vadra would be in jail if the National Democratic Alliance came to power. She said her husband was being used to launch a political attack on her family.