Cong: Modi’s PM remark anti-national

The Congress on Sunday accused BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi of being “anti-national” by projecting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in “poor light” over the “village woman” row and demanded that he apologise to the nation. Strongly condemning Mr Modi for the remarks, the Congress said it does not behove of a PM candidate of an Opposition party to use such language against the Prime Minister. “It is anti-national and needs to be strongly condemned. He needs to apologise to the nation for what he said today that puts Prime Minister in poor light,” AICC general secretary and chairman of its communication department Ajay Maken told reporters here. Mr Maken said Mr Modi, while addressing a rally went by the views of a Pakistani journalist who claimed that Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has termed Dr Manmohan Singh as a “village woman” for complaining against him before US President Barack Obama. He said, “It does not behove of a prime ministerial candidate of the Opposition party to speak against the Prime Minister” in this manner. “Modi, who claims to be a nationalist, does not believe in the Indian journalists and spreads a false story of a Pakistani journalist before the whole nation,” he said, adding, “Modi has put forth Pakistan’s views before the nation.” Mr Maken said it is “very sad that Modi chose a time to show the Prime Minister in poor light when he is abroad and has insulted him by doing so.” Taking on Mr Modi further for his blatant double standards in public discourse, Mr Maken expressed surprise as to why hadn’t Mr Modi yet cleared his stand on the ordinance on convicted legislators. He wondered if it was the presence of Mr Nitin Gadkari —— a person who had to withdraw his nomination for presidentsship under corruption charges — on the stage or to save Babubhai Bokhiriya, a minister in his Cabinet sentenced to jail in a mining scam, that made Mr Modi skip the issue. Responding to Mr Modi’s comment on the Commonwealth Games, Mr Maken said, in the last nine years the UPA government had brought RTI and several other laws to expose and curb corruption in public offices and it were these instruments that had enabled such transparency. He underlined that Mr Modi has spent more than '45 crores of public money in trying to stop the Supreme Court from enforcing the establishment of an independent Lokayukta in Gujarat. Mr Maken asked as to what business did Mr Modi have in speaking about corruption when many of his senior party colleagues, including Mr Gadkari, were facing serious charges and Mr Bangaru Laxman had even been convicted for 4 years on bribery charges. Mr Modi should also explain the source of his campaign funding, that included huge expenditures running into hundreds of crores of rupees for helicopters, electronic gizmos and paid crowds, Mr Maken added. Reacting to Mr Modi’s comments with regards to “Gandhi bhakti”, Mr Maken said that the Congress as indeed the entire country was proud of paying tributes to various Gandhis who had martyred their lives for the nation, rather than rallying to form a sena of “Modi bhakts” at the behest of the RSS.