The Congress on Monday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi doesn’t have the moral courage to debate the truth spoken by Rahul Gandhi and had therefore twisted his statement on “Shakti”.

Rahul himself countered the Prime Minister, saying: “Modiji does not like what I say. He always tries to twist it to change the meaning because he knows I have spoken a profound truth. Modi is the mask of the forces which I referred to, which we are fighting. It is a kind of shakti (power) which has captured India’s voice, India’s institutions, CBI-ED and income tax, Election Commission and the media, industries and the entire democratic structure of the country.”

Rahul added: “Modi helps the same power (shakti) by getting loans worth thousands of crores written off while the farmers are left to commit suicide because of loans worth thousands. The same power gets airports and ports while the youths get a demoralising Agniveer scheme. The media suppresses the truth in the honour of the same shakti. A slave of the same shakti, Modi imposes GST on the poor and auctions national assets to bolster their worth.”

The Congress launched a fierce counter to Modi’s propaganda, with women leaders like Renuka Chowdhary, Rajni Patil, Supriya Shrinate, Alka Lamba and others questioning the BJP on the countless incidents of atrocities against women in the last 10 years.

Recalling the horrors of Manipur, Hathras, Unnao, Kathua and Uttarakhand and the ill-treatment meted out to women wrestlers, they asked why Modi was silent when “Nari Shakti” suffered in his regime.

Party general secretary in-charge of organisation K.C. Venugopal said: “Modi is clutching at straws. He is rattled because Rahul Gandhi has exposed the invisible powers that control him. The powers that unleash ED, CBI and the IT department on companies to extort money from them. The powers which want Modi to hand over all of India’s wealth to them....”