india

Updated: May 10, 2020 17:29 IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been criticised for calling former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi corrupt, on Wednesday launched a scathing counterstrike at Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and his party with a laundry list of abuses hurled at him, before and after becoming the prime minister.

PM Modi said he had decided to speak about the various descriptors that had been used for him to unmask the veil of love that was being spoken about by Congress leaders. “Do you want to hear what words they used for me from their dictionary of love… How they expressed their love,” he said at an election rally in Haryana’s Kurukshetra on Wednesday before listing the abusive words.

“This is the truth of Congress’s dictionary of love,” PM Modi said, a clear rebuttal to Rahul Gandhi who frequently accuses PM Modi of spreading hatred and presents himself who has only love in his heart.

WATCH: ‘Congress awarding people who were part of 1984 anti-Sikh riots’: PM Modi

The 48-year-old Congress chief had responded to PM Modi’s recent attack on his father who was assassinated in May 1991with a tweet that sent the prime minister his love, and hugs. A growing list of opposition leaders have criticised the prime minister for calling Rajiv Gandhi who died 28 years ago ‘corrupt No 1’. Rahul’s sister Priyanka Gandhi had called the PM remark an insult to a politician who had laid down his life for the country.

Also read | ‘Instead of punishing those guilty for 1984 riots, Congress rewards them’: PM Modi

PM Modi did not get into the row over Rajiv Gandhi at the rally. In tweets from one of his many interviews, the BJP had hours earlier quoted PM Modi explaining that he had just mentioned what he described as an “established fact” and wondering why the Congress and its ecosystem had no qualms clapping when he was abused.

The prime minister’s effort at the rally was not only designed to pump up his supporters but also underline that Congress leaders had, irrespective of Rahul Gandhi’s stress on spreading love, use vile remarks for him too.

“But the way Congress naamdaar is showing his dictionary of love, no one is questioning him. So I am placing all the facts before the country,” he said.

“They have spread so many lies about me,” PM Modi said asking people to circulate the video of his speech to their relatives and friends throughout the country.

“Spread the word around on social media about these one-sided attacks on me,” he said to loud cheering from the gathering

The prime minister said the many abuses that he had listed was just a sample to just show how many times the Congress had crossed the line.

Also read | ‘Priyanka Gandhi wasting time campaigning in Delhi’: Arvind Kejriwal