At the launch of Karan Thapar’s book, Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story, Congress President Rahul Gandhi spoke about how the atmosphere in India is coloured with a lot of hatred, anger and frustration. He also spoke about how Indian politics has become us vs them.

Addressing the gathering, Gandhi said: “The design of our politics is confrontational and ‘winner takes it all’. But this is not how I am designed inside and I am sure, this is not how many of you are designed inside.”

In the course of sharing an anecdote, Gandhi said, “Hate is a choice. It is an active choice that you make. I might disagree with Mr Advani [LK Advani] and I might have a completely different conception of the country than Mr Advani does…but I don’t hate him,” adding, “I can actually hug him and fight him.” Referring to his hug to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Gandhi said, “It is very interesting because now whenever I come across BJP MPs they sort of take two steps back.” He added that it could be because they might be thinking ‘he might hug us’.

Gandhi also spoke about religion and his learnings from it. He said, “If there is one thing that our religion teaches us is that you absolutely cannot get imprisoned by hatred, and that is my endeavor.”