Farukkhabad, Uttar Pradesh:
As Union Minister Salman Khurshid's comment describing
Narendra Modi as "impotent" added to the increasingly personal attacks in the build-up to the national election in three months, Rahul Gandhi today warned against "speaking with hatred."
"When politicians speak with hatred, it is going to harm you," Mr Gandhi said in an interaction at a school in Guwahati, Assam.
The Congress vice president's words seemed to be a message for Mr Khurshid, who targeted Mr Modi over the 2002 Gujarat riots at a rally at his Lok Sabha constituency Farukkhabad in Uttar Pradesh yesterday.
"I want to ask him this question that you claim to be such a strong and powerful man and wish to be the PM, and you could not protect the people of Godhra. Some people came, attacked and went, and you couldn't protect. Are you not a strong man?..Our allegation is not that you get people killed...but that you are
napunsak (impotent)," Mr Khurshid said without naming the BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
Mr Modi's critics say he did not do enough to stop the riots in his state 14 years ago but recently, the Supreme Court said it could find no evidence to prosecute the Chief Minister.
The BJP has demanded an apology from Mr Khurshid. "It is regrettable and shameful, that too from the foreign minister of India. I can understand their desperation but does Sonia Gandhi approve? Mr Khurshid must apologise for the kind of language he used," said the party's Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Earlier this month, Mr Gandhi told Congress leaders and spokespersons to keep their political campaign positive and avoid personal comments. (
read: In Congress war-room, Rahul Gandhi cites Mani Shankar Aiyar's chaiwallah remarks)
He had cited a comment by Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar, who had controversially mocked Mr Modi's tea-seller past at a party conclave saying, "There is no way he can be Prime Minister in the 21st century... but if he wants to come and distribute tea here we can make some room for him."