"I have nothing but the greatest admiration for the manner in which you are providing leadership in extremely difficult circumstances. I hope you will understand the strength of my own conviction about this very controversial issue."
Earlier, at an impromptu press conference at the Press Club of India, Rahul Gandhi tore into the ordinance terming it as "complete nonsense" and it should, in his opinion, be "torn up and thrown away".
His mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi is understood to have called up Manmohan Singh and spoken to him after her son's comments.