PM Modi guilty of insulting India on foreign soil, says Congress

The verbal spat between the two largest party of the country, the BJP and the Congress, began after Gandhi made comments on rising intolerance in India during his address to the students of University of California, Berkeley.

While interacting with the media, Congress leader, Anand Sharma, said: "It is the present Prime Minister who is guilty of insulting India on foreign soil. It is wrong to accuse Rahul Gandhi of having said anything which is belittling. It again betrays the streak of intolerance towards criticism by the BJP and the present government. "

Sharma stated a list of events on foreign soil where the present prime minister said ill about India, somewhere tarnishing the image of the country.

Sharma said: "Prime Minister had called the country corrupt on his first foreign visit. He had said India is recognised in the world for for carrying a begging bowl in the hand. He had said that before him, nothing was done that could earn India the recognition of the world and the respect of the world. "

"He had also said that Indians used to feel ashamed to accept and own that they were Indian citizens on foreign soil......... Instead of criticising us, the prime minister and his apologist ministers must reflect and apologise to the country for having such words on foreign soil," the Congress' senior leader added.

The verbal face-off began after Union Information and Broadcasting minister, Smriti Irani, attacked the Congress vice president for criticising the BJP government over the rising intolerance in the country and also for his comments on dynasty politics.

Taking a jibe at Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's comment on dynasty politics during his address to the students of University of California, Berkeley, Irani termed Gandhi as a failed dynastic political party's leader who spoke out in the US.

In a brief media interaction, Irani said: "A failed dynastic political party's leader spoke out."

Gandhi, who is presently in the US for couple of weeks, said there are several instances of the dynasty problems in the country so he can't alone be held responsible for it.

Upholding several instances that are devoid of dynasty problems in the country, Irani said: "Our Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) was born in a poor family, President (Ram Nath Kovind) comes from a marginalised community (Dalit) and Vice President (Venkaiah Naidu) was a farmer's son."

Reacting to the US visit of Rahul Gandhi, the I&B minister said: "He (Rahul Gandhi) went to the international forum (the US) to express his political distress after getting rejected in India (elections in India)."

"He forgot that the votes are from India" she added.

Gandhi, in the US, spoke over a range of issues that concerns India and in some cases criticised the incumbent Modi government.

The Congress VP highlighted how the country is going through a phase of intolerance. "Violence and hatred distract people from the task it hand. Liberal journalist being shot, people being lynched because they are Dalits, Muslims killed in suspicion of eating beef. This is new in India and damages India very badly."

Gandhi did not miss a chance to dig at the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) government, particularly regarding the economic measures which had been taken since last year.

The recent Reserve Bank of India's report that states 99% of people's money returned to the bank after demonetisation and the recent dip in the GDP below six percent, prompted the Congress VP to criticise the government in the economic sector.

"The government's economic policies, the demonetisation and a hastily applied GST, has caused tremendous damage. Millions of small businesses were simply wiped out as a result of demonetisation. Farmers and manual labourers who use cash were hit extremely hard, agriculture in deep distress and farmers' suicide skyrocketed across the country," Gandhi said.

"Demonetisation, a completely self inflicted wound caused approximately 2% loss in India's GDP," he asserted.