Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi on stage at the mega rally of farmers in Delhi. (Agence France-Presse)
The ruling BJP on Sunday retaliated swiftly to the assault launched on Prime Minister Narendra Modi by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi at a big farmers rally in Delhi. It has asked Mr Gandhi to apologise for "insulting the people's mandate."
The BJP's Ravi Shankar Prasad, also a senior union minister, attacked Rahul Gandhi point for point, jibe for jibe, saying, "The Congress party should tell us how many times will Rahul Gandhi will be launched and re launched?"
Today's rally at Delhi's Ramila Maidan was seen as the comeback of Rahul Gandhi, who returned this week from a 57-day sabbatical abroad; the Congress hopes he will lead a reversal in fortunes after its humiliating defeat in the national elections last year and multiple state elections since.
In a strong speech today, he attacked PM Modi's proposed land reforms which makes it easier to acquire land for industrial and key infrastructure projects, alleging that he aimed to "snatch the land of poor farmers to pay back industrialists" who helped him win the national elections.
"Rahul said we took money from big corporates and won elections, does he have any right to insult the government like this? We condemn this brazen contempt against the popular mandate. You have lost everywhere and now this is what you say?" Mr Prasad said.
He also took on Mr Gandhi for his reference to the "Gujarat model" of land acquisition by bringing up the controversial land deals of Mr Gandhi's brother-in-law, Robert Vadra, saying, "Sonia ji Rahul ji tell us, what is the Vadra model of development, what is the Vadra model of land acquisition..."
To Mr Gandhi's allegation that the PM had insulted the nation by criticising the previous Congress-led regime in a public speech on his recent visit abroad, Mr Prasad made another dig at Mr Gandhi for his sabbatical. "How did the PM insult the nation in Toronto? One goes abroad for introspection, the other for raising the prestige of the country," and also, "Did the 2G scam, Coal scam not happen during the Congress regime?"
PM Modi had said at a reception in Toronto that his government of 10 months inherited a gigantic mess that it was now cleaning up, accusing the previous regime of corruption and scams.
Today, the PM told party MPs, "Is it a crime to point out that there was corruption earlier, and it has now been stopped."