The surprise element in Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s speech came at the end after he wrapped up, by his own admission, a long speech.
“You all may be thinking that I have a lot of anger and hatred inside me against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But that’s not the case....You may anger against me. For you I may be a Pappu, you can abuse me but I will absorb it,”said Mr Gandhi, referring to often used derisive nickname given by BJP members.
And to everyone’s surprise, including the Prime Minister, he then walked across the aisle, past the Lok Speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s chair to the Prime Minister’s seat and hugged Mr. Modi.
Startled, the PM took a few moments before he responded and shook hands with Mr Gandhi.
Mr. Gandhi then circled around the Lok Sabha well to go back to his seat.
As the entire Opposition got up in in a loud cheer, Speaker Mahajan had to remind the Congress chief that there are rules to be followed in the House.
In his speech, that last close to an hour and punctuated by a brief interruption, Mr. Gandhi attacked the PM over the Rafale deal, Doklam, demonetization, unemployment, attacks on Dalits and minorities and women safety.
He also said that the Prime Minister and the party chief “fear losing power as other processes will take over.”
