"I condemn the attitude of the government to scare, threaten and humiliate him."
New Delhi: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge today lashed out at the Central Government's attempts to "scare, threaten and humiliate" referring to the Lok Sabha Secretariat's directive asking Rahul Gandhi to vacate his government bungalow in Delhi after he was disqualified as a member of Parliament.
"They will make all attempts to weaken him (Rahul Gandhi) but if he vacates the bungalow, he'll go live with his mother or he can come to me and I'll vacate one," Mr Kharge told ANI.
Talking to ANI, the Congress chief added, "I condemn the attitude of the government to scare, threaten and humiliate him. This isn't the way. Sometimes, we've been without a bungalow for three to four months. I received my bungalow after 6 months. People do this to humiliate others. I condemn such an attitude."
On Monday, days after his disqualification as an MP following a Surat court's verdict in a criminal defamation case, the Housing Committee of Lok Sabha sent Rahul Gandhi a notice to vacate the government bungalow allotted to him, sources said.
They said Rahul Gandhi has been asked to vacate his government allotted bunglow on 12, Tughlaq Lane in the national capital.
Rahul Gandhi has been given a period of 30 days to vacate the premises to avoid eviction, the sources said.
Congress workers have held protests in different parts of the country following Rahul Gandhi's disqualification.
The party has attacked the Modi government on the issue and said that it will fight the matter legally and politically.
The court verdict, which came last week, related to Rahul Gandhi's Modi surname remarks made during an election rally in April 2019 in Karnataka.
The court approved Gandhi's bail on a surety and stayed the sentence for 30 days to allow him to approach the higher courts.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi who attended the BJP parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday asked the leaders to be ready for a "strong fight" stating that the more the party rises and succeeds, the more it will be attacked by the opposition.
The BJP parliamentary party meeting took place this morning in the Parliament complex here. This was the first time that this meeting has taken place in the ongoing second part of the session.
According to sources, the Prime Minister said, "The more, the BJP continues to taste success and rise, the more the attacks from the other side will increase. Have to be ready for a strong fight".
PM Modi's remark came at a time when the Parliament has been in a logjam in which the opposition continues to demand a JPC on the Adani-Hindenburg issue, and the BJP has demanded an apology from Rahul Gandhi for insulting the prime minister.
While the opposition parties continue to call Rahul Gandhi's disqualification as MP from Lok Sabha an attack on democracy, BJP and NDA MPs continue to attack the congress party and Rahul Gandhi for insulting Veer Savarkar and OBC community.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)