New Delhi: Congress on Monday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his barb on foreign soil that he inherited “lethargy” from previous governments, saying he should have desisted from raking up domestic politics abroad.
“Prime Minister should have maintained dignity of the high office he holds. There is no problem if he targets previous governments when he is in the country. But he should have refrained from doing so on foreign soil”, party spokesman Meem Afzal said.
Afzal said it was not proper for Modi to rake up domestic politics abroad despite repeated uproar by the opposition for his earlier such actions.
The Prime Minister, who is the UAE, said, “I have got some problems in legacy. I cannot take only the good points and leave aside the problems… Some things were stalled due to the indecisiveness and lethargy of the governments (in the last)… It is my priority to kickstart those things”.
Noting that the Prime Minister had visited the historic Sheikh Zayed Grand mosque, the world’s third largest, during the visit, Afzal said it would be good if he visited a mosque in India too.
Another Congress spokesman Sanjay Jha tweeted, “It is abominable that PM Modi continues his pathetic lowbrow jibes at opposition party when abroad. A huge embarrassment”
The Prime Minister, on a visit to attract investments from the UAE, told the business community there that all leading institutions like IMF, World Bank and Moody’s agree that India is the world’s fastest growing economy.
Afzal reminded the PM that the vast growth in the trade turnover with UAE from $160 million to $60 billion was mainly due to the efforts by the earlier governments, including those of the UPA.
“India receives $10 billion remittances annually from 26 lakh NRIs in the UAE which invests 15 billion dollars in the Gulf country”, he said.