Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma reacted sharply to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s charge in the Lok Sabha that Home Minister Amit Shah disrespected a delegation of Manipur leaders by asking them to remove their footwear when meeting him while keeping his own slippers on.
“Mr. Rahul Gandhi, those who prefer to feed biscuits to dogs in the presence of leaders from Assam and then offer them the same biscuits should be the last people to talk about political decency. High command mindset is INC’s (Indian National Congress) be all and end all. The people of India know it well,” he tweeted as soon as Mr. Gandhi’s speech during the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address to both Houses of Parliament concluded.
Mr. Sarma’s reaction was a recall of his own reported experience with Mr. Gandhi when the former had been in the Congress and went to meet the latter at his residence. At that time, Mr. Sarma said, he had been ignored in favour of Mr. Gandhi’s pet dog, and his concerns with regard to Assam Congress relegated to the background.
Narrating the incident in the Lok Sabha, Mr. Gandhi claimed a leader from Manipur told him “they had never felt as insulted as they felt while going to the Home Minister’s residence” after being asked to take off their shoes, while Mr. Shah kept his chappals on.
“It reflects the mentality, a sense that I am bigger than you. I am everybody and you are nobody. And that’s why I will wear my shoes, but you will not,” he said.
