Congress Hits Back At Rajyavardhan Rathore Over Beijing Olympics Claim, Cites Abhinav Bindra’s Book

Days after Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi should be tried for “treason”, the Congress hit back at the Bharatiya Janata Party MP for speaking “blatant lies”, claiming that during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, not only did the Congress Parliamentary party chief visit the Games Village but also met with Indian athletes in the Indian block.

Speaking in the Lok Sabha on Thursday during a no-confidence motion against the NDA government, Rathore had claimed that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi met the Communist Party of China in 2008 when he was in Beijing during the Olympics.

“I was at the 2008 Beijing Olympics (in China). We came to know that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are coming to meet us. They didn’t come to meet us. They met the Communist Party of China. They should be tried for treason,” Rathore said.

Later, Rathore said, “Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi came to Beijing in 2008. I was there at that time. Their car stopped on the road for 2 minutes and they went away from there. And why did I say ‘treason’ in Parliament? Because they were in China to sign a secret deal with the Communist Party of China. They did not go there as government representatives. The nation wants to know what was the secret deal.”

Reacting to Rathore, who won the silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics for double trap shooting, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate wrote in Hindi on X (formally Twitter, “Shame on you Rajyavardhan Rathore that you were once a part of the Indian Army… During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, not only did Sonia Gandhi visit the Games Village, but she also met with Indian athletes in the Indian block. This has been confirmed by boxer Vijender Singh himself and mentioned by Abhinav Bindra in his book ‘A Shot At History’. Abhinav Bindra won a gold medal in the 2008 Olympics, while Vijender Singh won a bronze medal.”

“This reflects the influence of your company. You belong to a party where even the prime minister and the home minister are experts in lying,” she added.

Manipur viral video incident

Raking up the Manipur viral video incident, the Congress leader asked Rathore, a former Indian Army colonel, “You were a part of the Kargil War, but when a heinous crime occurred in Manipur with a warrior’s wife, you remained silent. What kind of ally would someone be who didn’t stand with their soldier?”

A video showing two women being paraded naked and molested in Manipur’s Kangpokpi had surfaced last month and sparked massive outrage. The husband of one of the women seen in the video is an ex-Army man who also fought in the Kargil War. He had served in the Indian Army as a Subedar of the Assam Regiment.

“If you are fond of asking questions on China, then someday you will ask Modi ji why he gave a clean chit to China and took revenge for the martyrs of Galwan by increasing trade with China? Remember, in this battle between traitors and patriots, you stand with the traitors,” she added.

The last two days of the motion witnessed a fierce battle between the ruling and the Opposition coalitions over the Manipur violence and other raging issues.

On Sunday, Rathore alleged that the root cause of the ethnic conflicts in the northeast is the Congress’s policies when they governed the country.

“The root cause of the racial violence in the northeast is Congress’s policies. The Congress itself knows this. The Congress is the reason for the terrorism that has been going on inside Kashmir for so many years. The Congress has done the work of dividing this country by caste, sects and languages. The Congress has put the country in the pit by keeping one family at the top,” the BJP MP said in Jaipur.