PM Modi should have credited Rajiv Gandhi for India's IT revolution, say Tewari, Dikshit

Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India reiteration made in San Jose, California, Congress leader Manish Tewari on Sunday said the current government is only reaping the benefits of the very solid foundations in the telecom arena, or in the entire mobile technology sector, which were laid by successive governments, especially Congress governments between 1991 and 1996.

"If India has become a success in the field of telecom, the credit for that should go to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who actually laid the foundations of the entire information and technology revolution of this country. The credit should go to every government since 1996, which ensured that there would be a proliferation of mobile technologies across the country, whereby we will be able to offer the lowest cost for both voice and data to millions and millions of people," he added.

Another Congress leader, Sandeep Dikshit, said nothing was wrong with the Prime Minister speaking about the development of information technology in the nation, but he should have given credit to Rajiv Gandhi.

"As far as the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council is concerned, it will not be right to consider the UNSC beyond a level, because the UN's role has not been the same as it was earlier," said Dikshit.

Both views from the Congress Party were expressed following Prime Minister Modi's interactions with heads of IT magnets such as Microsoft, Google, Apple and Adobe to seek their support for realising the 'Digital India' dream.