Under attack for his "fight against Shakti" remark made at a rally in Mumbai, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi clarified on March 18 that he was not talking about any religious power but the shakti of unrighteousness, corruption and falsehood.
At a rally in Mumbai, Mr. Gandhi commented that the "fight against Modi is not on a personal level since Modi is a 'mask' who works for a 'shakti' (power)".
He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of twisting his words and said he was speaking about the power of which Mr. Modi was wearing the mask. "Modiji does not like my words, he always tries to change their meaning by twisting them in some way or the other because he knows that I have spoken a solemn truth. The 'shakti' (power) that I mentioned, Modiji is the mask of that power and we are fighting against it. It is such a power that today it has captured India's voice, India's institutions, the CBI, I-T, ED, Election Commission, the media, Indian industry and the entire constitutional structure of India in its clutches," he said in post in Hindi on X.
Using the same 'shakti' (power), he alleged, Mr. Modi waives loans worth thousands of crores of Indian banks, while an Indian farmer commits suicide when he is unable to repay a loan of a few thousand rupees.
“The same ‘shakti’ (power) is given India’s ports, India’s airports, while India’s youth is given the gift of ‘Agniveer’ that breaks their courage. While saluting the same power day and night, the country’s media suppresses the truth. Narendra Modi ji, who is a slave of the same power, imposes GST on the poor of the country without controlling inflation and auctions the country’s wealth to increase the strength of that power,” he said in the post.
"I recognise that power and so does Narendra Modiji. It is not any kind of religious power, it is the power of unrighteousness, corruption and falsehood. That's why whenever I raise my voice against it, Modi ji and his machine of lies gets upset and enraged," he added.