Manmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi said, is a former Prime Minister too and has "selflessly served India."
Rahul Gandhi said today that his priority as Congress president will be to "change the nature of political discourse," accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of saying "many wrong things about me," and also reiterating that he will not retaliate in kind. He also said that PM Modi's comments against his predecessor Dr Manmohan Singh over a dinner meeting with Pakistani diplomats last week were "unacceptable".
Mr Gandhi, 47, has been elected unopposed as Congress chief and will formally take over from his mother Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on Saturday. He was addressing a press conference today in Ahmedabad as campaigning ends in the Gujarat assembly elections, his first after the Congress announced yesterday that he has been elected unopposed to the party's top post.
Rahul Gandhi said he had immediately suspended Mani Shankar Aiyar, a senior leader of his party, for "unacceptable words" he used against the PM Modi last week. "I have made it clear I will not tolerate such things, PM Modi is after all the Prime Minister," Mr Gandhi said, also adding, "though what PM Modi said about Manmohan Singh is also not acceptable."
Dr Singh, he said, is a former Prime Minister too and has "selflessly served India."
BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad immediately asked if Dr Singh consulted anyone before going to meet a Pakistani delegation. "In the light of the terror threats from Pakistan, violence in Jammu and Kashmir, did Manmohan Singh consult anyone before the meet... and with due information of Rahul Gandhi," Mr Prasad asked in a press conference.
PM Modi has alleged that Pakistan is attempting to meddle in the Gujarat elections and that Congress leaders, including Dr Singh, discussed the state polls with Pakistani guests at a dinner hosted by Mani Shankar Aiyar.
It has escalated into a war of words with Dr Manmohan Singh saying, in an usually sharp response, "Fearing imminent defeat in Gujarat, desperation of Prime Minister to hurl every abuse and latch on to every straw is palpable. PM Modi is setting a dangerous precedent by his insatiable desire to tarnish every constitutional office." He asked the PM to apologise to the nation.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley shot back that saying the dinner party was a "misadventure," and that it was surprising the Congress has sought the PM's apology when it was they who "did not follow the national line on Pakistan."