After Rahul hugs Modi in Lok Sabha, Congress organises 'free hug' campaign in Delhi

NEW DELHI: After Congress president's Rahul Gandhi's hug and wink that shook Parliament two days ago, Congress workers in Delhi on Tuesday organised a 'free hug' campaign, dispensing, well, hugs, to whomever was willing.

They began the campaign in the Capital's Connaught Place area. Congress workers carried placards that said, 'Erase Hatred', 'Say no to Hate' and 'Save the Country'.



Two days ago, in the Lok Sabha, Rahul, after a trenchant attack on Modi, walked across the floor of the House and embraced the PM in a big, big bear hug as stunned Parliamentarians debating a no-confidence motion against the government looked on.

The Congress president appears to have borrowed a page from the PM's 'hugplomacy' book; Modi's well known by now for his penchant for hugging foreign heads of state. what was particularly striking about Rahul's hug was that it came after he concluded his speech by saying he doesn't hate the BJP.

''You (BJP) have hate in your hearts for me, you can call me 'Pappu' and hurl choice abuses at me, but in my heart, I have no hate for you)," he said, right before he went over to hug a nonplussed Modi.

A few moments later, cameras caught Rahul with a mischeivous smile on his face winking at a colleague.

A day later, several posters of the Congress president Rahul Gandhi hugging Modi in the Lok Sabha were put up in Mumbai's Andheri. The posters' tagline was read, "Nafrat se nahi, Pyar se jeetenge (we will win by love, not hatred)."

Rahul's gesture was hailed by his party leaders as "Jaadu ki Jhappi (magical hug)", the BJP ridiculed him saying he has started "chipko movement" in the Lok Sabha

Hwever, neither the hug nor the wink went down well with the BJP. The party's Goa spokesperson Dattaprasad Naik described the Congress president as a `loafer` for winking in Parliament.

"Rahul Gandhi who does not have substance or the understanding of issues related to the people of India had to resort to hugging the Prime Minister in the Temple of democracy and then winking like a loafer," said Naik.