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Seeking to project Lok Sabha polls as a battle of conflicting ideologies, Congress today hit out at BJP and Narendra Modi over their "exclusionary" politics and "ideology of hate, bigotry and prejudice".
The party' election manifesto said the polls ahead offered stark choices before the people.
"On one side is the Congress with its long track record of achievements and accomplishments, with its vision and values bequeathed to it by a most remarkable generation of Indians led by Mahatma Gandhi."
"On the other side is an ideology of hate, bigotry and prejudice, an ideology that negates the very idea of India that has been cherished by us for centuries," the party said.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi said the upcoming poll is not only about programmes, policies, planning and economic development but also for preserving the constitutional structure of the country envisaged by the freedom fighters.
"We will struggle for such India which is secular and inclusive and does not pit one against the other," she said as Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi flagged the "danger" from Modi's idelogy.
A number of senior party leaders have been maintaining that the next Lok Sabha polls is not a battle between Congress and BJP but between Congress and RSS.
Senior party leaders have assiduously tried to discount a suggestion that the next Lok Sabha polls look like a battle between Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi and given an impression that the political discourse this time would be "secular versus communal" for them.
The party's poll document further buttresses the point. "On the one side is the Indian National Congress, which celebrates and rejoices in the multitude of diversities of India. On the other side is an ideology that seeks to impose uniformity in the name of unity," it said.
