Jyotiraditya Scindia in New Delhi on Thursday. (PTI)

Rahul Gandhi eventually gave in to the media’s grilling on Thursday and unburdened himself on the blow from one of his closest friends, Jyotiraditya Scindia, who not only dumped the Congress but chose to embrace its worst enemy.

“Jyotiraditya Scindia got worried about his political future. He kept his ideology in his pocket and went with the RSS. But the reality is that he will neither get respect nor emotional satisfaction. He will realise this,” the former Congress president said.

Rahul had initially tried to avoid the subject, arguing he didn’t want to divert attention from the struggling economy and the coronavirus outbreak, but opened up in the face of sustained questioning.

“You insist on knowing; so let me tell you: this is a battle of ideologies. Clear-cut. Battle of ideologies of Congress and RSS.”

He added: “I know Scindia. He studied with me in college. I know his ideology. We have discussed a lot between us. I know him well. My friendship with him is old. That is there. But what he is saying now and what is in his heart are not connected. They are different.”

Rahul took care not to be harsh on his friend, acknowledging that his ideology was not in sync with that of the RSS. But he was categorical that Scindia had defected because of political incentives, and that his criticism of the Congress was irrelevant.

He also hinted that Scindia had surrendered because he wasn’t ready for a protracted struggle.

Digvijaya Singh, senior party leader from Madhya Pradesh, argued that Scindia had no reason to be unhappy with the Congress leadership and had joined the BJP to become a Union minister.

“There was no issue in making him the state unit chief. He was offered the post. He was also asked to become deputy chief minister but he declined,” he told a news conference in Bhopal.

“There was no issue over (Scindia’s possible membership of the) Rajya Sabha; he would have got it. The problem was that we could have made him only a Rajya Sabha member, not a cabinet minister. Only Modi-Shah could have made him a minister and hence he went.”

Digvijaya appeared to insinuate that Scindia had colluded with the BJP to try and topple the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh.

“Initially, when BJP central leaders told the state leaders about Scindia, they said the government can be pulled down without him. (There was) no need to induct him. They launched the operation by taking our MLAs to a hotel but we busted that plot,” he said.

“Then Plan B was launched with Scindia. We wanted to discuss with him. But he said he would call; he didn’t. I sent him an SMS and he replied that he had fever. Then we learnt he was joining the BJP. Kamal Nath tried to call him but he didn’t talk.”

The Congress alleged that 19 of its MLAs were being held hostage in Bangalore and that the BJP and Karnataka police were not allowing even their families to meet or talk to them.

“The mobile phones of our MLAs have been seized. They are allowed to talk to their families from a local number and that conversation is recorded,” Digvijaya said.

“They are in captivity. Their resignations (were) delivered to the Assembly Speaker by BJP leaders. The irony is that the BJP still says it is all an internal matter of the Congress.”

The afternoon news conference was held after two Congress MLAs, Jitu Patwari and Lakhan Singh, were arrested in Bangalore when they went to meet Manoj Chaudhary, one of the MLAs allegedly kept hostage there.

Chaudhary’s father Narayan Chaudhary, who was accompanying Patwari, too was arrested. The police have been accused of roughing up Patwari, who is a minister and a relative of Chaudhary.

Congress leaders said they would petition the Supreme Court on Thursday night if the Bangalore police did not release Patwari.

“This is now a multi-state matter and hence the Supreme Court should intervene and order the release of all our MLAs,” senior politician and lawyer Vivek Tankha said.

“This way, democracy can’t survive. You hold MLAs captive and pull down the government!”

Patwari was, however, released after some time.