Lashing out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after its leader Sambit Patra called Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi a “traitor,” Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on Friday that the accusation was nothing new coming from such people as those who called former prime ministers, including Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, traitors. She asserted that nothing is above the country for her brother.

Speaking to reporters outside the Parliament building, the Wayanad MP said, “Those who can call Jawaharlal Nehru, who spent 13 years in jail during the Independence struggle, a traitor, those who can call Indira Gandhi, who broke Pakistan into two, a traitor, and those who can call Rajiv Gandhi, who was martyred for the country, a traitor, then if they are doing the same with Rahul Gandhi then there is nothing new in it”.

“I am proud of my brother, for my brother, nothing is above the country,” she said as she participated in the opposition’s protest over the Adani issue. Referring to his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Priyanka said her brother walked 4,000 kms from Kanniyakumari to Kashmir for the unity of this country. She also alleged that the saffron party did not have the courage to discuss the Adani issue in Parliament.

“They don’t have the courage to discuss the Adani issue (in Parliament). Why is there a problem in discussion… discussion happens in democracy only, they are afraid of it as well,” she said. On Thursday, Bharatiya Janata Party MPs K Laxman and Patra cited to the press a report published by French media outlet “Mediapart” to target Gandhi.

Patra claimed that billionaire investor George Soros and some US-based agencies, investigative media platform Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Gandhi form a “dangerous” triangle trying to destabilise India and stoke public disaffection for a regime change in the country. “I have no hesitation in saying that he (Gandhi) is a traitor of the highest order,” Patra said.