After a video of the meeting with controversial Tamil pastor George Ponnaiah went viral, in which the pastor is heard saying, 'Jesus is the real god...not like shakti, 'the Congress MP asked the pastor if Jesus was a form of God. Ponniah responded, 'Jesus is the real God. God reveals him(self) as a man, a real person...not like Shakti...so we see a human person.' Shehzad Poonawalla, the national spokesperson for the BJP, criticised Rahul Gandhi for the meeting, claiming that it was Nafrat Jodo rather than Bharat Jodo. After the Bharat Jodo Yatra was successfully launched, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh responded to the BJP's assaults by calling them typical BJP mischief that has become more desperate.' In July of last year, Ponnaiah was detained in Madurai for reportedly delivering a hate speech against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
