Congress president Rahul Gandhi Friday reiterated his 'love' for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also berated him for 'humiliating' BJP veteran L K Advani.
Interacting with students in Pune, Gandhi said he loves Modi but begets anger from the latter.
"I love PM Modi. Genuinely, I have no hatred or anger towards the man, but he (Modi) has anger towards me," he said. "I genuinely do not have anger towards him, he added.
Addressing a poll rally at Chandrapur later, Gandhi said Modi had humiliated Advani, adding disrespecting one's guru is not Hindu culture.
Gandhi's swipe at Modi over the treatment meted out to Advani follows the BJP patriarch's blog published Thursday where he said his party never considered political adversaries as anti-national.
"BJP talks of Hinduism. In Hinduism, guru is supreme. It talks of guru-shishya tradition. Who is Modi's guru? Advani. Modi just kicked Advani out ('Joota marke stage se utara')," Gandhi said.
The remark was a veiled reference to Advani not getting Lok Sabha poll ticket from Gandhinagar, from where BJP has fielded party president Amit Shah instead.
During his interaction with students, Gandhi said his party's manifesto was an expression of the people of India and ruled out burdening the middle class to fund the anti-poverty scheme Nyunatam Aay Yojana (Nyay).
The opposition party has said that if voted to power, it will give Rs 72,000 per year as minimum income to poor families, benefiting around 25 crore people, a move Gandhi has termed a 'surgical strike' on poverty.
Gandhi said, "2019 (polls) is a battle of ideologies and the Congress ideology of brotherhood, love and harmony will win against Modi's hate, anger and divisive ideology."
Targeting industrialist Anil Ambani over the Rafale offset contract, he said, "A person who is not able to make even paper planes bagged the biggest defence contract with Rs 30,000 crore going directly to him. The entire budget of MNERGA scheme was given to a single person."
Asked about sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's twitter post calling him courageous, Gandhi replied, "I am persistent, I stand up for people who are weak."
On being asked who should take credit for the Balakot air strike, Gandhi said, "the (Indian) Air Force should take credit. It is Important that people know they can't mess around with India."
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