Paper tearing incident: Ambika Soni defends Rahul Gandhi

With Rahul Gandhi drawing flak from SP and BJP for tearing up a list of poll promises by opposition parties, Congress today said his act was the "best way" to send across the message that assurances were to be kept and not forgotten after elections.

"Rahul has merely said unless we build our credibility and do not fulfil the poll promises, these are like torn papers. What is wrong in it?" Information and Broadcasting minister Ambika Soni told reporters here.

She said Rahul's act was the "best way" in a public meeting to send across the message that politicians should honestly fulfil the commitments that they make otherwise, these promises are nothing more than a torn paper.

Rahul's paper tearing act at an election meeting in Lucknow yesterday drew a sarcastic reaction from the BJP and Samajwadi Party.

While BJP termed the incident as "illogical", SP taunted Rahul saying that he may now jump from the stage to vent his anger.

"Rahul seems angry. Earlier he used to get angry by folding hands, then he got angry by tearing up paper. Who knows, next time he might jump off the stage in anger," SP's Akhilesh Yadav said at Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Ravishankar Prasad in Ghaziabad said, "It is an illogical act...It will do no magic to attract voters."