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Days after he hugged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament generating a controversy, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said his attempt was to fight his political battles without hatred, pointing out Hinduism teaches that one cannot be imprisoned by hostility.

Gandhi, who was the guest of honour at the formal launch of journalist Karan Thapar’s book “Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story”, said he can hug a BJP leader and fight him politically, but he was not sure if he can expect the same from BJP.

“If there is one thing that our religion teaches us it is that you absolutely can not get imprisoned by hatred. And that’s my endeavor in a little way,” he said.

Gandhi referred to the episode in the Lok Sabha during the debate on no-confidence motion last week and said BJP MPs now move “two steps back” when he comes near them.

Gandhi began his speech by attacking the Modi government, saying “India today is colored with “a lot of hate, a lot of anger and frustration.”

He said politicians across the political divide, including him, tend to “see the world as them or us.”

Pointing to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, who were in the audience, Gandhi said they would agree that this (‘them’ or ‘us’) was not his worldview.

“This is the design of our politics: It is confrontational and it is like a winner takes it all. But this is not how I am designed from inside and I am sure this is how many of you are designed from the inside. I am sure Mr Advani would agree with the basic idea of what I am saying,” Gandhi said.

The Congress President recalled his visit to Vietnam about ten years back to see the impact of the country’s war with America and said his boatman during ride on the Mekong river happened to be a person who had fought the Americans.

Gandhi said the man had injuries all over his body and that he had also killed an American. “But he did not hate them,” said Gandhi.

Gandhi emphasised that one can fight an opponent without hatred, and noted that hatred was “an active choice” that an individual makes.

“The point I am making is that you can fight someone with all your might but hate is a choice. It is an active choice that you make. And that is something very important to understand,” he said.

Gandhi said he can disagree with Advani and have a completely different perception about the country. “I can fight him on every single inch but he does not need to hate me,” he said.

“I can actually hug him and fight him,” Gandhi said to a loud applause.

“This is very interesting how it works because now whenever I come across BJP MPs, they sort of take two steps back… Let us fight, I will take on Narendra Modiji. All my friends sitting here, we will all take on BJP and they will fight us. But we don’t need to hate them. I don’t know if I can expect the same from them,” Gandhi said.

The event was attended by several senior Congress leaders, including Karan Singh, Digvijay Singh, Ahmed Patel. CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury was also among those present.

The BJP will formally start its election campaign for the Rajasthan Assembly elections with Suraaj Gaurav Yatra on August 4, said state party president Madan Lal Saini.

Starting from Charbhuja in Udaipur zone, a procession will be taken out under the leadership of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia and will be inaugurated by BJP president Amit Shah, said Saini speaking to the media at the BJP headquarters here.

The yatra will pass through each district of the state covering all 200 Assembly seats. It will culminate at Ajmer where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be present, said Saini.

The BJP will present its report card and will update people on the benefits of various public welfare schemes launched by it.

he Karnataka government has drawn a blueprint to waive crop loans of farmers from state-run and co-operative banks in the southern state, an official statement said.

“The government has prepared a blueprint to waive off loans up to Rs 48,000 crore that includes loans from co-operative banks, subsidy and crop loans granted by the state-run banks,” said a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office.

The blueprint includes the Rs 34,000 crore loans to be waived as announced by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy while presenting the state Budget on July 5.

Total loans amounting up to Rs 48,000 crore to be waived include Rs 37,159 crore crop loans granted to the farmers by state-owned banks and about Rs 9,500 crore of current loans, the statement added.

The banks are too ready the details of farm loans from across the state that is eligible to waive, and the process of the waiver will commence after the state’s review.

As per the election manifesto promises of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) to waive farm loans if voted to power, Kumaraswamy, who is also the state party chief, had announced in his budget speech to waive up to Rs 2 lakh crop loans per farmer family.

“All crop loans defaulted by farmers up to December 31, 2017, are waived in the first stage. Only loans borrowed from district co-operative banks and state co-operatives are waived in the first stage,” he had said.

The budget had also proposed to allot Rs 6,500 crore to enable farmers to avail fresh loans after they submit a clearance certificate from the department concerned that their loan arrears have been waived.

The previous waiver by former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had cost the state exchequer Rs 8,165-crore.

A day after the starvation deaths of three minor girls in east Delhi, both the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress on Wednesday flayed the Aam Aadmi Party government on the issue.

The BJP said that instead of playing politics over ration distribution, the Arvind Kejriwal government should concentrate on meeting the basic needs of the people.

“Such a sad incident is happening in Delhi where the government claims to be championing the cause of providing ration to the poor,” Delhi BJP President Manoj Tiwari said.

Expressing shock and dismay over the deaths of three siblings in Mandawali, he said that such an incident in a constituency represented by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, who on Wednesday ordered a magisterial probe, had “saddened” him.

“We hope that the Arvind Kejriwal government will learn a lesson and concentrate on providing the people the basic necessities,” the BJP leader said.

An autopsy at the Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital suggested that starvation “appears” to be the cause of the demise of the three sisters on Tuesday in Mandawali area of east Delhi.

According to police, the three — aged two, four and eight years — were found unconscious in their one-room house by their neighbours and later declared brought dead at the LBS Hospital.

The northeast Delhi MP said that a thorough inquiry was necessary and that society too should take notice and come forward to help the destitute.

The Congress claimed that the bodies had been shifted to the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital to get the “desired autopsy report”.

In a series of tweets in Hindi, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said: “Three kids die due to starvation in Delhi’s Mandawali. Post-mortem being shifted to GTB Hospital from LBS Hospital in a bid to get the desired reports. This family doesn’t have the ration card. The number of ration cards has gone down to 15 lakh from 33.5 lakh during earlier Congress rule in Delhi.”

The former Minister said that he will visit the bereaved family on Thursday morning.

“We had alerted the Delhi government earlier that about nine lakh eligible families were denied the ration cards. Three kids have died due to starvation in the constituency of Sisodia, who is buying a new vehicle worth Rs 20 lakh.”