Ravi Shankar Prasad hits back at Manmohan Singh

A day after former prime minister Manmohan Singh expressed concern over the autonomy of state institutions under the present Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Centre, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit out at the senior Congress leader asking how much 'democracy' was left within the Congress Party.

"Does someone who is not from the Gandhi family ever become national president of Congress? Manmohan Singh should answer how much democracy is left within the Congress party. It was in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by Manmohan Singh that Supreme Court had remarked that the Central Bureau of Investigation was the government's caged puppet," Prasad told media here.

Furthermore, Prasad alleged that it was former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who incited an atmosphere of violence after the murder of his mother Indira Gandhi that led to the anti-Sikh riots in 1984. He also said that no justice was done in the Congress rule but it was only after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over that the Sikh community is being given justice.

A day earlier, Singh had held a press conference in Indore in which he took on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government alleging that institutions are undermined and their autonomy is in danger in the present dispensation.