PM Modi's remarks on former PM Rajiv Gandhi outright despicable: Captain Amarinder Singh

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], May 6 (ANI): Taking him head-on over his remarks on Rajiv Gandhi, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi who he said had hit the "nadir of pettiness" in his desperation to stay in power.

"Faced with imminent ouster from the seat of power, power-hungry Modi has lost all sense of decency and proportion in his election campaign, reducing it to a shameless mockery of public norms," he told the media commenting on Modi'sremarks,

"Your father was termed 'Mr Clean' by his courtiers, but his life ended as 'Bhrashtachari Number 1,' Modi had said at a public meeting two days ago.

"Modi's remarks were outright despicable and reflective of his loathsome mindset," said the Chief Minister.

"The universal criticism the Prime Minister has faced over his comments showed that no sane individual or political institution that looked at elections as a serious democratic process could condone such malicious and baseless propaganda. The entire opposition has flayed Modi over his disgusting remarks - a clear indication that nobody wants the election process of the country to be vilified in such a manner," he added.

Captain Amarinder, who was Rajiv's senior in school, described the former Prime Minister as one of the most decent, humble and honest men he had ever known. "Rajiv had nothing but unwavering love for India and would never, in his wildest imagination, have even thought of cheating the country or its people," he said.

"But a thief thinks everybody else is also a thief, and a liar cannot envisage any person to be truthful," the Chief Minister quipped, lashing out at Modi for lying about a person who could no longer defend himself.

"Rajiv sacrificed his life for the country, and our current Prime Minister, unmindful of the dignity of the chair he has been ensconced in for the past five years, deems it fit to drag the former PM's name into what he has reduced to a shameful saga of low-level electioneering," remarked Captain Amarinder.

"Even Modi's own party leader, former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, always had good things to say about Rajiv," the Chief Minister noted, pointing to Vajpayee's statement on how Rajiv had saved his life by including him in a delegation to UN so he could get his kidney problem treated in New York.

"That was the kind of man Rajiv was. Modi and BJP are indulging in all kinds of falsehoods and cheap allegations against the Gandhi family out of sheer frustration as they had no positive agenda to fight the poll battle with," said Amarinder.

"Rajiv's name was originally dragged into the Bofors case out of political motivation but he was exonerated by the Delhi High Court in February 2004, even before the UPA came to power. The then BJP government had failed to build a case against the former Prime Minister from 1998 to 2004," the Punjab CM contended.

All the 13 seats in Punjab will go to polls in the last phase of the Lok Sabha elections on May 19. The counting of votes will take place on May 23.