Cong defeating BJP in ideological fight, Modi's bluster gone over Rafale: Rahul

Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not have a "single step" to stand on and his "bluster" has gone in the wake of the Rafale deal "revelations", Congress president Rahul Gandhi said Wednesday, asserting that his party was winning the "ideological fight" against the BJP.

Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party's general body meeting, Gandhi described the Rafale deal as a "systematic robbery" from the Indian defence forces and alleged that not just the fighter jet contract, but every single deal under the Modi government had been managed in the same way.

One man is chosen and then the whole procedure is bypassed, he alleged at the meeting that was attended by Congress Parliamentary Party leader Sonia Gandhi, former prime minister Manmohan Singh, Congress' leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad among others.

The "revelations on Rafale, one after the other...Today you see in the Hindu newspaper, that the entire argument for the new deal, the idea that it was cheaper and the idea that planes were needed quickly, has been demolished. Finished," Rahul Gandhi said.

"So there is not a single step for the prime minister to stand on, you can see it in his face, you can see the expression, you can see that, that bluster has gone and that is not Rahul Gandhi, that is the Congress party, Congress workers and all of you," he said addressing his party's lawmakers.

Gandhi alleged that the government's "attack has been systematic".

"We are defeating the BJP in the ideological fight. We are defeating the BJP on the daily news cycle and the Congress party is now, firmly entrenched in the mood and spirit of the people," he asserted.

There is only one party that speaks for the entire country, the Congress chief said, adding that every other party speaks for a part of the Indian society.

Rahul Gandhi alleged that the RSS and the BJP divide the nation and only speak for a part of the country.

The Congress is the only institution that defends the idea of India and that is why it is its duty to defend the institutions of the country, he said.

"You will see that in 2019...you will see that the number of people standing behind you will surprise you," he said.

"You will get a shock as to what is going to happen in 2019 and this would not have been possible if you had not defended our position in Parliament," the Congress chief, lauding the lawmakers for their perseverance.

Rahul Gandhi claimed that senior leaders in the BJP were not allowed to speak, and there was only one voice in the Lok Sabha of the BJP and that was of Narendra Modi.

"Before they speak they think 'what is he (Modi) going to say, what is he going to think' and this is what is systematically being done," he alleged.

He claimed that institutions such as the the Election Commission and the Supreme Court were being attacked.

The common man has realised that Modi is not what he had claimed to be and the RSS is not what they claim to be. They are actually attacking the idea of India, and the only force that can defend the idea, is the Congress, he said.

Rahul Gandhi said when the party had got just over 40 seats in Lok Sabha everyone thought that it will not be heard in front of more than 280 members of the government, but Congress lawmakers stepped up and made themselves heard.