Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said any sensitive Prime Minister would not have imposed a lockdown on a four-hour notice, as Narendra Modi had done, thereby inflicting unforeseen miseries on the poor all over the country.

Addressing rallies in Bihar’s Madhepura and Araria, the former Congress president said: “It is believed that truth ultimately manifests itself. Modi’s character got exposed during corona. No sensitive Prime Minister would have announced a lockdown all of a sudden. Mar jata par wo nahin karta jo Narendra Modi ne kiya (would have preferred to die instead of doing what Modi did). This showed Modi has no feelings for the poor.”

With a receptive crowd appreciating the blunt attack through repeated applause, Rahul said: “A Prime Minister knows crores of workers survive on daily wages. A Prime Minister ought to know how many poor people survive earning daily and that a sudden lockdown will destroy them.

“Modi didn’t think about them for a moment; showed no concern for their plight. They walked hundreds of kilometres to their homes without food and water. But the Prime Minister said — no, I will not give them trains. That is how our Prime Minister is.”

Sensing that voters in the first two phases of the Bihar elections had been deeply influenced by the agonising experience of the lockdown, the Congress leader scaled up the attack on the Prime Minister over the issue to optimise the gains in the third phase.

Iterating his pet charge of Modi’s politics and policies being pro-corporate, Rahul said: “Have you ever seen Modi embracing a poor person, holding a farmer’s hand? I met migrant workers who were walking home from Haryana to Uttar Pradesh and they asked me one question — why didn’t our PM give us time? Why did he announce the lockdown on a four-hour notice? We would have reached home had we got three-four days. We would have tried even if one day was given.”

Rahul added: “They told me Modi has no feelings for the poor. I know he can’t do anything for the poor, he won’t. But he has no shame. He still came seeking your vote. This man thinks the people of India have no brains, no understanding. He can get away with anything.

“He said the corona battle could be won in 22 days (Modi had said 21). Then he said thali bajao to scare corona away.”

When corona kept spreading, he asked people to flash mobile phone lights. He keeps saying whatever he wants. But the media supports him. They show him all day long, hail him for everything he does.”

The Congress leader linked the new farm laws to the perceived pro-corporate agenda and said farmers had burnt effigies of Modi along with those of “Adani-Ambani” in Punjab. Rahul pointed to how farmers in states like Punjab and Chhattisgarh had got much more for their produce than those in Bihar.

The former Congress president, who is said to have a soft corner for the Bihar chief minister, for the first time equated Nitish Kumar with Modi, saying: “Both are the same. They complement each other. Have no misgivings about any difference between Modi and Nitish. Nitish stole your vote to give it to the BJP. Nitish stabbed you in your stomach. He stabbed you in the back. He didn’t betray once, he did it several times.”

The Congress appears to be working to a plan by keeping the focus on the lockdown. While Rahul also released a short film showing people’s struggle during that period, Congress communications chief Randeep Surjewala held a media conference on the same subject.

“When sensitivities die, when an intolerant regime takes birth in the womb of cruelty and barbarism, you get something like the Modi-Nitish regime. History will remember the brutalities of Modi-Nitish on the poor workers who struggled to survive the lockdown,” Surjewala said.