India's image portrayed as 'land of snake charmers' even after decades of indepedence: PM Modi takes swipe at Priyanka Gandhi

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Taking a swipe at Congress' general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday accused Congress of portraying India as a 'land of snake charmers' even after decades of independence. "There was a time when Congress used to please foreign guest throw snake charming. The whole world used to believe that India is only the land of snake charmers and magic. Our image is still being projected as such even after decades," Prime Minister said while addressing an election rally here.

This comes a day after Priyanka Gandhi had an unusual encounter while on the campaign trail in the Rae Bareli constituency of Uttar Pradesh where she met snake charmers and even petted and held snakes in her hands.

Referring to growth in IT sector, Prime Minister stressed that the citizens of India are moving ahead with the help of computer's 'mouse' and not snakes, in the world of latest technology and innovation. "They are forgetting the fact that India has moved ahead of snake, it is moving ahead with 'mouse'. They are not snake-charmers anymore, they now use the mouse of a computer," he said.

During her campaigning, Priyanka had halted at a village in the parliamentary constituency represented by her mother Sonia Gandhi and sat down with some snake charmers. "Nothing will happen, it is fine," Priyanka had said as she was warned by onlookers while she calmly held a snake and nestled it back into its basket.

She chatted with the snake charmers with a while and addressed a gathering for before moving on.

Elections for remaining 12 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan are scheduled to be held on May 6. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.