Rahul Gandhi retorts to BJP's criticism of his 'Shakti' remarks

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Monday that his statement wherein he used the word 'shakti' had been taken out of context, responding to widespread criticism over his ‘Shakti’ remarks,

Ex-Congress President Rahul clarified in detail on X, what he meant when he said about "shakti," which the BJP wrongly associated with the holy and revered figure in Hinduism.

“The ‘shakti’ which we are fighting is deeply enmeshed in the system, the PM is just a mask of it,” Rahul posted on X.

“It is the ‘shakti (force)’ that has destroyed constitutional bodies like the Election Commission, made agencies like the CBI, ED a puppet and taken the whole constitutional set-up for a ride,” Rahul Gandhi explained.

“It’s because of this ‘shakti’ that poor and marginalised farmers are being driven to more pitiable situations, while big corporates are getting bank waivers of hundreds to thousands of crores,” he said.

Gandhi slammed the media, claiming that it was now saluting this "shakti" and no longer reporting the truth.

The Congress leader got into a row on Sunday because of his statements at Shivaji Park in Mumbai. He said, "There is a word 'shakti' (might) in Hindi, we are fighting against the ‘shakti’ (might of the state). The question is, what is that ‘shakti’ and what does it entail for us?”, he said facing a large crowd marking the end of the Congress' Nyay Yatra.

BJP attacked Rahul, saying that his statements about "fight against a shakti" showed that his party is fighting Hinduism.

Gandhi’s remarks also showed his "hatred" for women power and all forms of its manifestation – Goddess "Parvati, Durga, Kali, Gauri, Tripura Sundari, Mahadevi," BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla alleged in a post on X.

[With inputs from IANS]