Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse both believed in the same ideology of hatred and violence.

“Nathuram Godse and Narendra Modi believe in the same ideology. There is no difference…,” Rahul told a rally in Wayanad, his parliamentary constituency in Kerala. “Modi does not have the guts to say he believes in Godse,” he added.

“When Godse shot Mahatma Gandhi, he did not look into his eyes because a liar and coward can never look at the truth,” he told the rally.

Rahul was addressing the “Save the Constitution March” the Congress-led United Democratic Front had organised against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The Congress leader slammed the NDA government and Modi for asking the people of India to prove their citizenship.

“Now Indians are being made to prove they are Indians. Who is Modi to decide if I am an Indian? Who has given him the licence to decide who is an Indian and who is not an Indian?” Rahul thundered to a rapturous response from thousands who had gathered at a school ground in Kalpetta to listen to him.

“I know I am an Indian and I don’t have to prove it to anybody. And 1.3 billion Indians don’t have to prove they are Indian to these people,” he said, lashing out against the new citizenship matrix of the CAA, the National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register.

The former Congress president spoke at length about Gandhi’s experiments with truth. “Mahatma Gandhi never told the British that he hated them. He told them ‘you are not aligned with the truth’,” Rahul said, adding the Father of the Nation allowed all Indians to seek their own truth through their personal experiments without bracketing them under any ideology or system of belief.

“He wanted everyone, rich or poor, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh… every single person to search for their own truth,” Rahul said.

“And today, an ignorant man, an uninformed man is trying to challenge this idea. He is so full of hatred and anger that he cannot understand what India’s strength is.”

Rahul then questioned Modi’s achievements. “What has Modi done? You go to the US, Europe or anywhere and ask them what they think about India. They say that India has lost its way… and today, they say India is at war within itself.

“People are locked up for saying what they believe. Thinkers like (M.M.) Kalburgi and (journalist) Gauri Lankesh are shot. Women are being raped every single day. Unemployment is at the highest in 45 years,” he said.

“An economy that used to grow at 9.5 per cent is growing at 2.5 per cent. Youngsters cannot see a future,” he added, before going on to allege that Modi was only interested in protecting his friends.

“He is protecting only his friends. (Gautam) Adani (of the Adani group) is given ports and airports (to operate). Now they are thinking of giving him the Indian Railways,” he said.

“They are privatising HP (Hindustan Petroleum), BP (Bharat Petroleum) and Indian Oil. So the idea is very simple, divide India, spread hatred and then steal from India,” he said.

Rahul reminded his audience that the citizenship law would not fetch jobs for the unemployed.

“The NRC and the CAA are not going to get jobs for our youngsters. The situation in Kashmir and Assam is not going to get jobs. So we have to work together to get jobs for our youngsters,” he said, calling upon people to join hands and fight hatred with non-violence.

“Our duty is to fight their hatred and to confront them peacefully. We don’t believe in violence. We don’t believe in violence. We will defeat them with love and affection,” Rahul said before embarking on the 3km march against the citizenship law.