Rahul says loves Modi, berates him for ‘insulting his guru’
Pune, April 5
Congress president Rahul Gandhi today reiterated his “love” for PM Narendra Modi and also berated him for “humiliating” BJP veteran LK Advani.
Interacting with students in Pune, Gandhi said he loves Modi, but begets anger from the latter. “I love PM Modi. Genuinely, I have no hatred or anger towards the man, but he (Modi) has anger towards me,” he said.
“I genuinely do not have anger towards him,” he said.
Addressing a poll rally at Chandrapur later, Gandhi said Modi had humiliated Advani, adding disrespecting one’s guru was not Hindu culture. Gandhi’s swipe at Modi over the treatment meted out to Advani follows the BJP patriarch’s blog published yesterday where he said his party never considered political adversaries as anti-national.
“The BJP talks of Hinduism. In Hinduism, guru is supreme. It talks of guru-shishya tradition. Who is Modi’s guru? Advani. Modi just kicked Advani out (joota marke stage se utara),” Gandhi said. The remark was a veiled reference to Advani not getting the Lok Sabha poll ticket from Gandhinagar, from where the BJP has fielded party president Amit Shah instead.
During his interaction with students, Gandhi said his party’s manifesto was an expression of the people of India and ruled out burdening the middle class to fund the anti-poverty scheme Nyunatam Aay Yojana (Nyay).
The Opposition party has said if voted to power, it will give Rs 72,000 per year as minimum income to poor families, benefiting around 25 crore people, a move Gandhi has termed a ‘surgical strike’ on poverty.
Targeting industrialist Anil Ambani over the Rafale offset contract, he said, “A person who is not able to make even paper planes bagged the biggest defence contract with Rs 30,000 crore going directly to him. The entire budget of MNERGA scheme was given to a single person.”
Gandhi said the Congress poll manifesto was given the final shape after consulting all stakeholders. “The middle class will not be taxed and income tax will not be increased to implement the Nyay scheme,” he said. — PTI
