Coming to the rescue of Manmohan Singh, Congress on Sunday described Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as an “anti-national” for belittling the Prime Minister over the ‘village woman’ controversy and demanded an apology to the nation.
Strongly condemning Modi for the remarks, Congress said it does not suit a Prime Ministerial candidate to use such fowl language against the Prime Minister. Addressing an election rally in Delhi, Modi said that Sharif had referred to Singh as a “village woman” during an interaction where Indian scribes were also present.
“How dare you (Sharif) address my nation’s Prime Minister as a village womanIJ There cannot be a bigger insult of the Indian Prime Minister. We can fight with him on policies but this will not be tolerated. The PM heads 1.2 billion people who will not stand by such remarks,” he said.
Reacting to Modi’s barbs, head of the Congress media department, Ajay Maken told reporters, “It is anti-national and needs to be strongly condemned. He needs to apologise to the nation for saying something that puts our Prime Minister in poor light.”
Maken commented on the views of a Pakistani journalist who claimed that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has termed Singh as a “village woman” for complaining against him before US President Barack Obama.
He said, “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”.
Maken said it is “very sad that Modi chose a time to show the Prime Minister in poor light when he is abroad.” Another Congress leader Rashid Alvi dismissed Modi’s charge that Rahul Gandhi had undermined the PM’s authority by attacking the ordinance on lawmakers and alleged that the Gujarat CM was “misguiding” the country while “ignoring” his State which is facing a flood threat.
“Rahul Gandhi had not even mentioned the name of the Prime Minister. He had only expressed his views regarding the ordinance. He did not even ask the Government to withdraw it,” Alvi said, alleging that it was Modi who was “denigrating” the PM.
“look at the content and tone in which he spoke. I think it is utterly despicable,” said another party leader Sandeep Dikshit. Earlier in the day, in a scathing attack on Gandhi, Modi accused him of undermining authority of the Prime Minister and asked people to decide if the nation will be run according to the constitution or whims of the “prince”.