New Delhi: First-time Lok Sabha MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra turned heads on Monday as she arrived in Parliament with a bag which had ‘Palestine’ emblazoned on it.
The bag also featured some emblems like a watermelon, which symbolises solidarity with Palestinians.
Not surprisingly, it triggered a political war of words.
As Congress spokesperson Shama Mohamed shared a photo of the recently-elected Congress MP from Kerala’s Wayanad on social media, BJP leader Sambit Patra fired a salvo.
“The Gandhi family has always been carrying the bag of appeasement. The appeasement bag is the reason behind their rout in elections,” the Lok Sabha MP from Odisha’s Puri said during a press briefing.
BJP leader Amit Malviya said Priyanka is a “bigger disaster” than Rahul Gandhi and called the Congress the ‘new Muslim League.’
“At the end of this Parliament session, observe a two minute silence for everyone in the Congress, who believed Priyanka Vadra was the long-awaited solution, they should have embraced earlier. She is a bigger disaster than Rahul Gandhi, who thinks sporting a bag in support of Palestine in the Parliament, is about fighting patriarchy. That is right. Crass communal virtue signalling to Muslims is now cloaked as stance against patriarchy!” Malviya posted on X.
Another BJP leader and Union minister Anurag Thakur said Priyanka was only interested in making a ‘fashion statement’. “She did not speak a word on atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh but wants to make a fashion statement with the Palestine bag,” Thakur said.
Priyanka has long been a proponent of the Palestinian cause, having strongly criticised Israel’s actions in Gaza.
A few days ago, Priyanka was seen sporting a black-and-white keffiyeh (traditional Palestinian scarf) during a meeting with Palestine embassy charge d’affaires Abed Elrazeg Abu Jazer.
Reacting to BJP’s charge against her and Congress, Priyanka brought up the situation in Bangladesh.
“Tell them to do something over the atrocities against Hindus in Bangladesh. Talk to the Bangladesh government and not say stupid things,” the Congress leader advised the saffron party.
Earlier this year, Priyanka condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions, calling the war in Gaza “barbaric” and urging countries worldwide to denounce what she described as “genocidal actions.”
“It is the moral responsibility of every right-thinking individual, including all those Israeli citizens who do not believe in hatred and violence, and every government in the world to condemn the Israeli government’s genocidal actions and force them to stop,” Priyanka wrote in a post on X post in July.
