I stand with the last person in the line. The exploited, marginalised and the persecuted. Their religion, caste or… https://t.co/B5tmvPlRmH — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) 1531811246000

NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi said he stands for the poor and seeks to erase social hatred, with religion having no place in his concern for the marginalised, in a bid to amplify the denial to repeated BJP attacks that he recently called Congress a “party of Muslims”.Breaking his silence on the row BJP has seized upon since his meeting with Muslim intellectuals, Rahul tweeted, “I stand with the last person in the line. The exploited, marginalised and the persecuted. Their religion, caste or beliefs matter little to me. I seek out those in pain and embrace them. I erase hatred and fear. I love all living beings. I am the Congress.”Rahul’s comment sought to set to rest the controversy that BJP has not let go despite repeated denials from Congress that he never made the statement attributed to him in a press report over his meeting with Muslim intellectuals. BJP has been using the report as a pretext to attack Rahul.While breaking his silence on the row, Rahul sought to position Congress and himself as pro-poor, an umbrella category that subsumes all religions and castes. Rahul said he was fighting “hatred and fear”, in a veiled attack on BJP.Congress realises BJP’s offensive is aimed at reinforcing the perception about the rival’s “secular” roots, which has become shorthand for caricaturing it as “pro-Muslim” and reinforce the charge of “appeasement”. It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who stoked the issue at a rally in Azamgarh. Since then, BJP has fielded senior ministers to keep the pot boiling.The opposition party is hard pressed to find a way to end the controversy which it acknowledges can only harm it politically.Rahul’s decision to finally wade into the row is an attempt to bury the issue ahead of the Parliament session and in the run-up to end-year assembly polls in three key BJP-ruled states.