Rahul at Chitrakoot on Tuesday. (PTI)

Chitrakoot, Jan. 18: Rahul Gandhi today came to the defence of cola giants Pepsi and Coke, under attack at the youth leadership convention here.

In a spirited fight for globalisation, Rahul recalled how his father had met with resistance when he tried to bring in his IT policy.

Social activist and Magsasay award winner, Sandip Pandey, was gunning for the cola companies in his lecture on Civil Society and Politicians when Rahul asked him: ?Why don?t you tell us that poison is found also in the other soft drinks, even in the soft drink that is sold by the roadside by local traders??

?I don?t think Pepsi and Coke were deliberately trying to poison people. The truth is the poison is there in our ground water, which these companies use to manufacture soft drink,? the Amethi MP added.

The focus on the second day of the Congress? brainstorming session, being held at the Ramayan Mela Hall, was on challenges the party has to face to strengthen its organisation in Uttar Pradesh.

But the session opened with Pandey?s address in which he spoke of how Pepsi and Coke had been using ground water in Uttar Pradesh, causing socio-economic stress to farmers.

Ironically, the activist was attacking the BJP for its uncritical support to the cola companies and its open-door economic policies when Rahul spoke up for globalisation. Miffed, Pandey left the stage and only returned at the end of the session after Congress leaders went to pacify him.

Rahul argued people always look at an issue from its immediate, narrow contexts. ?When my father Rajiv Gandhi had launched his IT policy, it also triggered some social protests. But we have to keep an open mind now on key issues like these.?

Sudha Pai, an expert from JNU, analysed the ?Rise of BSP in UP? and how it has hurt the Congress. Her observation that the reformist party might burn out because it does not have a definite economic agenda raised a flicker of hope among the young Congress leaders.