On the last day of the political campaign, Congress president Rahul Gandhi hit back at Prime Minister Narandra Modi for talking about his ancestral history and said his mother and former Congress president Sonia Gandhi is more Indian than many other people in the country.
“My mother is Italian. But she lived a larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indian people I see. My mother has sacrificed for this country, my mother has suffered for this country. And it shows the quality of the Prime Minister when he makes such comments,” Mr. Gandhi said, responding to Mr. Modi’s remarks on Ms. Sonia Gandhi’s Italian origin.
Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, Mr. Gandhi said: “Mr. Modi has got anger inside of him. He is angry with everybody, not only me. I’m a lightning rod for anger, I attract anger. But that is his problem. It’s not my problem.”
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He said the Prime Minister’s attack on him for his prime ministerial ambition was aimed at distracting attention. “This election is not about Rahul. I have now learnt to deal with the Prime Minister. When he can’t respond, he distracts,” he said.
He further said Mr. Modi saw a “threat” in him.
Mr. Gandhi, who criss-crossed the State for the past two months, said the Congress drew from the essence of aspirations of the people of Karnataka to create its manifesto. The BJP’s manifesto, however, was crafted behind closed doors and half of it was copied from the Congress manifesto, he alleged.
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Referring to women and the alleged assaults on women, Mr. Gandhi said: “Rape, atrocities on women is a political issue, who says it is not? Mr. Modi likes to discuss bullet train and other issues, but does not like to discuss fundamental issues. He goes quiet when Dalits face atrocities in India.”