Headlines
Modi made false claims overseas: Congress
New Delhi, April 17
Incensed at Narendra
Modi's remark in Canada about "scam India" that he claimed inheriting as
prime minister, the Congress on Friday hit back at him for making an
apparent jibe at its UPA government on foreign soil.
Congress
warned that such "false claims" if made again off shores will be
instantly countered by a designated party spokesperson in the same
country.
Party spokesperson Anand Sharma said: "The prime
minister portrayed India in poor light and earned a dubious distinction
of belittling the predecessors and maligning the opposition."
"He
(Modi) must be reminded that he was on a state visit abroad as the
prime minister of this country and not as a spokesperson of the (ruling)
Bharatiya Janata Party," he added.
Sharma, a former union
cabinet minister in the United Progressive Alliance regime, said if the
prime minister continued to make "false claims on the foreign soil, we
would not tolerate".
"We will depute a Congress spokesperson who
would be present in the same country as the prime minister to counter
such claims," he remarked.
The Congress also took "strong
objection" to Narendra Modi's claim of being the first Indian prime
minister in 42 years to visit Canada, reminding him of ex-prime minister
Manmohan Singh's state visit there in 2010.
Sharma noted that
former prime minster Manmohan Singh had paid an official three-day visit
at the invitation of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in June,
2010.
"On (Stephen) Harper's invitation, Manmohan Singh went to
Canada in 2010. It was a state visit, and the two released a joint
statement after their bilateral engagements," Sharma told reporters here
while flashing a copy of the joint communique.
Released on June
27, 2010, the joint statement on Manmohan Singh's visit said: "...Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh visited Canada at the invitation of Prime
Minister Stephen Harper. During his visit, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
participated in G20 Toronto Summit and held bilateral discussions with
Prime Minister Stephen Harper."
Reiterating his previous stand,
Sharma deplored the "scam India" remark, saying Modi must be reminded
that he inherited a "vibrant India" with a "strong economy of over 2.1
trillion dollars and foreign exchange reserve of 310 billion dollars.
Sharma
said India is not a country that ever begged for help, as remarked by
the prime minister in Germany, but rather sought to extend help to other
nations in need.
Charging that Modi had "lowered the dignity of
the prime minster's office and "insulted the nation with his
"unceremonious conduct on a foreign soil, the Congress said he must
"apologise" to the people of this country.
"He owes multiple
apologies to the nation for his conduct and utterances. He is belittling
the achievements of the great country and also breaking a well
established time-honoured convention not to take domestic political
propaganda abroad," Sharma told reporters here.
During the last
leg of his three-nation visit, Modi, said in his address in Toronto
"Jinko gandagi karni thi, woh gandagi kar ke chaley gaye, par hum safai
karenge (Those who had to create a mess they have done so and left. But
we will clean it up).
Modi further said that he would work on transforming India's image of a "scam" country to that of a "skilled" nation.