Using tough language, Rahul made a rare and dramatic appearance before journalists to denounce the ordinance as "complete nonsense" and a document that "should be torn up and thrown away".
Rahul's strong criticism during an unscheduled media interaction at Delhi's Press Club took place while the prime minister was sleeping in his suite in a Washington hotel, hours before his meeting with President Barack Obama.
"The government is seized of all these developments. The issues raised will be considered on my return to India after due deliberations in the Cabinet," he said in a statement.
With Rahul taking a public stand against it and writing to the prime minister, there is little doubt that the fate of the ordinance, now before President Pranab Mukherjee, is sealed.