Needs to grow up: Hardeep Puri tears into Rahul Gandhi over Epstein files charges
India Today
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri hit out at Rahul Gandhi for raising his name in the Epstein files row in Parliament, calling it "politics by innuendo" and saying the Congress leader "needs to grow up" and engage in informed debate instead of making insinuations.
Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, whose name surfaced in the court documents and files linked to disgraced US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, launched a sharp attack on Rahul Gandhi for raising the issue in Parliament, saying the Congress leader “needs to grow up”. He accused the Leader of the Opposition of indulging in “politics by innuendo” and said his remarks reflected “streaks of buffoonery”.
In an exclusive interview with India Today, Puri said he had personally informed Gandhi about the context in which his name appeared in a limited number of emails among millions of documents that have surfaced publicly. He added that had Gandhi read the note, he would not have “made a fool of himself” in Parliament.
“So, this is not about Epstein. This story is about the lack of maturity and the fact that the Leader of the Opposition -- who believes in politics by innuendo and follows a ‘spit and fly’ approach -- hasn’t grown up,” Puri said.
Escalating his attack, Puri remarked that in the civil services there is a provision for voluntary retirement for non-performing officials, adding, “He has not grown up.”
Describing Gandhi’s approach as “politics by innuendo,” Puri accused him of making allegations and then avoiding substantive debate. “If you want to raise an issue, you must do your research and allow the other side to respond. What he does is say something and then run away,” Puri said, adding that Parliament is a forum for informed participation, not insinuation.
“I have always said that the essence of freedom of speech, the essence of democracy, the essence of parliamentary participation is in taking part in a discussion, not by spit and fly,” he said.
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