Nationalism means respect for people, don't see respect in anything BJP does: Priyanka Gandhi

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday took a dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the way it is preaching 'nationalism' and said ‘nationalism means love of the people and for the country’. “True nationalism means love of the people and for the country but the BJP mirrors neither love nor respect in anything it does,” Priyanka Gandhi said.

"Nationalism means solving the problems of the people of the country. The greatest patriotism of any politician, of any government, would be to be able to hear the people when they speak, would be to be democratic, to be able to strengthen the institutions that strengthen the public voice, not weaken it," she added.

She also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP for failing to address real issues. “There will be consequences if the voice of the people is drowned by the voice of one leader,” Priyanka said.

The Congress leader also said there is growing "public anger and pain" for which the people of India will give a message to Modi on May 23 when the votes for the Lok Sabha polls will be counted.

The BJP has been building its campaign narrative around the issue of nationalism and national security and the party has been referring to the Balakot air strikes and the Modi government's policy in tackling terror.

Meanwhile, Priyanka has hit out at BJP leaders for criticising her over an edited video.  “I stopped children from saying slogans which I think weren't correct about PM. BJP edited the tape, removed the part where I was stopping them and they're making this allegation, which is typical of them. What they do is twist truth, what I do is I speak the truth,” she said.

In the video, Priyanka Gandhi is seen enjoying the performance of a group of children shouting "Chowkidar Chor Hai".

She looked on amused when the emboldened children shouted another slogan that included an expletive for PM Narendra Modi.

Priyanka immediately stopped the children and saisd, "yeh wala achcha nahin hai. (This one is not good)