A day after Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra impressed photographers during an interaction with snake charmers, Modi accused her of projecting an image of the country that did not sit well with the reality.

“Now it is ‘mouse charmers’ and not ‘snake charmers’,” Modi said on Friday, referring to the young Indians in the IT sector. He did not directly name the Congress general secretary. Photojournalists covering Priyanka Gandhi’s election campaign in her mother Sonia Gandhi’s constituency of Rae Bareli had caught her talking with snake charmers.

“Nothing will happen, it’s fine,” she had said when someone warned her against holding a snake. At an election rally here, Modi referred to a photo of Jawaharlal Nehru. “There was a time when the Rs naamdars’ of the Congress used to feel happy showing snake charmers to foreign guests,” he said.

“There is popular picture of the first Prime Minister showing a snake charmer to foreign guests. It is available on social media. He was feeling proud,” he said.

Such pictures made the world call India a country of snake charmers, Modi said.

“The fourth generation of the ‘naamdar’ family is doing this now as well,” he added.

Modi said they forget that the country has moved ahead, and Indians hold the computer mouse now. “Now it is ‘mouse charmers’ and not ‘snake charmers’.”

He said the country’s young people have changed the image of the country by making a name in the field of IT.

“But the fourth generation (of the family) is seeking votes by showing snake charmers,” he said. He also accused the Congress of doing nothing

for the welfare of the

nomadic community of snake charmers.