Under fire,Rahul moderates tone,talks love not anger

However,his remarks — especially the claim that Pakistan’s ISI was in touch with riot victims — had evoked strong criticism from across the political spectrum,including Muslim organisations,which accused him of painting victims as suspects.

On Sunday,as Modi addressed his much-anticipated rally in Patna,Rahul did speak about “anger”,the context was different and the aggression missing.

Pitching the Congress as a party that fights for the poor,he said: “A Congress man fights,but he does not do it in anger but with love. He fights from his heart. Others fight with anger. We fight for the people and for the weak,but with love.”

Rahul’s toning down comes amidst division within the Congress itself on taking on the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate on the communalism issue.

While a section feels that taking on Modi on the issue could be electorally beneficial and force other parties to take a stand in the commuanalism vs secular debate,another section argues that it will help the BJP by polarising voters on communal lines. They refer to Modi’s ability to “spin and twist” and point out how Sonia Gandhi’s “merchants of death” remark before the 2007 Gujarat elections had backfired.

Today,while Rahul took on the BJP,it was on development,arguing that the UPA made three times more roads than the NDA government and asserting that the Opposition does not care for the poor.

“We built airports,created infrastructure for transport and education,but we don’t want to forget you… The common man,woman,youth… We want a day to come when your strength propels this country forward… We want to open up the system and bring you in,but the Opposition says no,keep them out. They say people should not come into the system,their voice should be kept out of the system. ‘Bureaucrats should run the system’… We say system will run only with the common man and laws will be made for them,” he said at a modest rally,attended by about 25,000 people,in Mangolpuri in outer Delhi.

He sought to hard-sell the work done by the Sheila Dikshit government and to reach out to the migrant population in the Capital. “Jo migrants aate hain unka haat pakadke,unko ek saat leker hum aage badte hain (The migrants who come,we hold their hands,and together,we move forward),” he said,referring to the regularisation of 45 unauthorised colonies.

While he again made a reference to mother Sonia,Rahul talked about her as the “Congress president” on Sunday. “I was talking to the Congress president yesterday. I asked her who can be and is a Congress man. She said a Congress man is one who helps the weak. ‘Wherever he sees a weak person — whether he is poor or rich — and whenever he meets a person who is wronged,a Congress man stands up for him and fights for him’,” he said.

“I wish to see the day when the voice of the people standing in the last row in the ground here and the weakest person reaches the parliamentary committees,Vidhan Sabhas and Lok Sabha. I want the last man standing here to become tomorrow’s pradhan,MP and MLA… The Congress party wants to empower them,” Rahul added.

Listing the Dikshit government’s achievements,he said in 15 years,“Sheilaji and the Congress party have transformed Delhi”. Rahul gave the example of the “shining” Delhi Metro,saying it was not just building similar systems in other states,but in countries such as Indonesia,as well as talked of the “gleaming” new “world class airport” in Delhi,the 130 flyovers and overbridges that had come up in the city and the doubling of the passenger bus fleet. He called it a “transport revolution”.

Power cuts were a thing of the past and Delhi had become an educational hub with five new universities having 50,000 new seats coming up,the Congress vice-president said.