Congress president Rahul Gandhi with Delhi Congress president Shiela Dikshit during an election rally in New Delhi on Monday. (Photo: Pritam Bandyopadhyay)

New Delhi: Responding to the personal attacks made by Prime Minister Narender Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday advised him to learn and respect elders.

At a rally in Delhi, Mr Gandhi said, “He (Modi) can heap any kind of abuse on me. But for the insults he is heaping on my father and mother and my grandmother and great grandfather, the people of India will give him a befitting punishment.”

Prime Minister Modi took a jibe against former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by saying that the latter was ‘Bhrashtachari No. 1’ (corrupt No. 1) at a rally on Saturday.

On Monday, Rahul Gandhi addressed his debut election rally for the Congress Lok Sabha candidates in Delhi, which was organised in favour of Chandni Chowk candidate Jai Prakash Agarwal and presided by DPCC president Sheila Dikshit.

“Narendra Modi ji, we are going to defeat you on May 23. May be because of that you have become so scared that you are insulting a martyred leader, who is respected by the world,” said Mr Gandhi.

He said nothing can be gained in the world through hatred but that Mr Modi had “gone far too ahead on the road of hatred.”

He assured Mr Modi that Congress will not hate him at a personal level. He added that Congress believes in a political battle based on issues and wins the battle rather than engaging in personal attacks.

“Educated people live in Delhi and they have very well understood your wrong doings. You have destroyed them through demonetisation and GST and I get complaints on these matters on a daily basis,” said Mr Gandhi.

He said that the kind of hatred the people of Delhi nurse against BJP will have to be borne by Mr Modi.

Slamming the Modi government for its incompetence, Mr Gandhi said that PM Modi had promised to give 2 crore employment to the youth of the country every year, which turned out to be just a daydream. On top of that, the latter put Rs 30,000 crore of the tax payers’ money into the pocket of Anil Ambani.

Mr Gandhi said that to give relief to the poorest people in the country, Congress will implement the NYAY scheme.

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