Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs take two steps back whenever he meets them now as they fear that he would hug them.
Last week, Rahul garnered huge attention after he walked up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hugged him following his speech in the Lok Sabha over No-Confidence Motion.
After citing an example from his visit to Vietnam some time ago, Rahul at a book launch event here said: "You can fight someone with all your might, but hate is a choice. It's an active choice that you make. I might disagree with Mr LK Advani (sitting in the audience). I might have a completely different conception of the country that Mr Advani has and I can fight him on every single inch, but I don't need to hate him. I can actually hug him and fight."
He added: "It's interesting because now whenever I come across BJP MPs they start off taking two steps back. They are like, 'We better be careful, he could hug us.' But it's not such a bad thing. If there is one thing that our religion teaches us is that you absolutely cannot get imprisoned by hatred."
Though, Rahul's gesture was hailed by his party leaders as "Jaadu ki Jhappi (magical hug)", the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ridiculed him saying he has started "chipko movement" in the Lok Sabha.
In his speech at the event, Rahul also said that "the atmosphere in India today at least from my perspective is coloured with a lot of hatred, a lot of anger, frustration."
Meanwhile, in context with the infamous issue of 2016 Rafale deal, Gandhi in his speech during the debate on No-Confidence Motion in the Lok Sabha claimed that he had met French President during his visit to India and had asked about the secrecy clause in the pact. The Congress president claimed that the French President had denied about any such clause.
When ANI asked about BJP's claim that NDA government saved Rs 59 Crore per aircraft in Rafale deal, Rahul simply replied: "We will discuss it but not right now. Please look at my tweet."
It seemed that Rahul was talking about the post he made earlier in the day which read: "Mr 56 does (heart emoji) someone after all. 1. Must wear a suit 2. Must have 45,000 crore debt 3. Must have a TEN day old company. 4. Must never have made an aircraft in his life. Rewards of up to $4 billion in 'off set' contracts if you fulfil said criteria."
Also present at the book launch were former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, former Vice President Hamid Ansari and Congress Leader Salman Khurshid.
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