Congress on Sunday latched on to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks in Malaysia on the issue of corruption to rake up the Lalit Modi controversy over which it is seeking resignations of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.
Addressing the Indian diaspora on the second day of his three-day visit to Malaysia, Modi said, “We are eliminating corruption at all levels and making governance driven by policy and systems not discretion of individuals.”
In response, Congress tweeted, “He didn’t utter a word when Smt Swaraj & Smt Raje helped a fugitive. #ModiInMalaysia talks about Corruption! Ironic!” The party also used a quote of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to take a jibe at the Prime Minister for his assertion that since his government entered office 18 months ago, no region has seen greater engagement from India than Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean Region.
“The person who always talks about his virtues, is in reality, has less of them,” the party said in Hindi quoting Nehru.
Senior Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that such comments not only insult the office of the Prime Minister but also the grandeur of the country and asserted that India, with all its fault and shortcomings, has evolved from 1947 to 2015 and every person has contributed to that.
“Whenever he (Modi) speaks, he underlines the assumption that India was born and grew up from adolescence to youth to old age and achieved everything in 18 months. Neither any good thing existed prior to May 2014 nor are Indian achievements prior to May 2004 relevant to talk about.
“It is regrettable that a person of the stature of Prime Minister can bring in such pettiness in every
comment, even on foreign soil. It seems to have become DNA of the NDA. It seems to have become the inbuilt thinking process of the NDA,” he told reporters.