Arun Jaitley attacks Rahul Gandhi, says 'dynast' is day-dreaming

Arun Jaitley

New Delhi: In a sharp attack against Rahul Gandhi, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the Congress President's claim to have "dismantled" Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image was a case of "daydreaming" by the "dynast".

Accusing Gandhi family of having "a sense of entitlement" that they were born to rule, he said the 2014 election was an "utter shock to them" and that Rahul Gandhi's revenge against Modi may not succeed and may turn out to be "revenge against the Congress".

"Yesterday (Thursday), Rahul Gandhi said, 'I have dismantled Modi's image'. How do you damage the image of a person who is riding perhaps at the peak of his popularity? How do you damage the reputation of a person who is known to be incredibly honest? Seems the dynast is day-dreaming," Jaitley said in a blog post.

"Dynasts have a self-illusory opinion about themselves. They create a disproportionate image about their own abilities in their own mind and believe that the universe around them thinks alike. They tend to become megalomaniacs. Rahul Gandhi is no exception," he added.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader said that Gandhi announced four months ago that Modi will lose in Varanasi and that the BJP would be reduced only to a couple of seats.

"He has a disproportionate impression about his oratorical skills when he challenges one of the greatest communicators of his times, Prime Minister Modi, for a public debate. He comes out with outrageous ideas about security, economy and social issues and believes that his views have found mass acceptability.

"With Prime Minister Modi's personal acceptability ratings today being close to 70 per cent, Rahul proclaims that he is dead sure that Modi is very unpopular. The irony of every dynast is that he buys his own propaganda even if there are not too many others willing to accept it," Jaitley said.

He added that losing to a "person of modest origins" in 2014 and being reduced to the lowest-ever strength in history became unacceptable to the "dynasty".

"It took them more than three years to get out of the shock of the 2014 rout. The strategy devised was that Modi had to be fought and removed.

"Unacceptability of a commoner challenging the dynast and defeating him led to both envy and revenge... His revenge against Prime Minister Modi may not succeed. It may well turn out to be revenge against the Congress," Jaitley said.

He added Gandhi's statement that he had "dismantled Modi's image" was a giveaway.

"How do you damage the image of a person who is riding perhaps at the peak of his popularity... Can an image be destroyed by a person who belongs to a family which has been tainted through generations with charges of corruption?

"It's clear that Rahul Gandhi concocts falsehood, as in the Rafale case, starts believing his falsehood to be true and eventually dreams that the falsehood has destroyed his opponent," wrote Jaitley.

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