The BJP claimed the Congress sidelined Manmohan Singh during his tenure as the prime minister.
Reacting to the Congress’s accusation that the Central government insulted ex-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by not allocating a spot for his memorial, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday dredged up former PM PV Narasimha Rao’s funeral, claiming the Gandhi family has never accorded respect to non-Gandhi Congress politicians.
Union minister Pralhad Joshi reacted sharply against Congress’s accusation that the Centre has insulted Manmohan Singh, the nation’s first Sikh prime minister, by performing his last rites at the Nigambodh Ghat when instead of it, a place could have been earmarked and made his memorial. He labelled the allegation as “cheap politics”.
Joshi said apart from Manmohan Singh; the Congress did not provide respect to former PM Rao and former president Pranab Mukherjee.
“Not only former prime minister (Manmohan Singh), the Congress did not accord due respect to another former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao and former president Pranab Mukherjee. Now, Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter said that the Congress did not convene a CWC meeting after the death of her father, he said.
He said the Congress didn’t give Bharat Ratna to Rao, one of the architects of the 1991 economic reforms.
On Saturday, BJP leader Gaurav Bhatia questioned Congress’s decision not to build a memorial for Rao. He was reacting to Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s attack on the Centre over its decision to conduct Manmohan Singh’s cremation at Nigambodh Ghat.
Sharpening his attack, Bhatia asked Priyanka to share the pictures of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi paying tribute to the mortal remains of former PM PV Narasimha Rao.
