PM is more concerned about NRIs than resident Indians: Cong

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was today the target of attack of Congress which took serious exception to his remarks abroad on the lament among some people about their "misfortune" of being born in India and said he is "more concerned about NRIs than resident Indians."

"We are really pained over the remarks as no leader in independent India has ever made such a statement", former Union Minister Kapil Sibal said at the AICC briefing.

Taking a dig at the just-concluded three-nation tour of the Prime Minister, Sibal said "he is more concerned about non-resident Indians, than resident Indians".

He utilised and twisted a Mukesh song from the 1958 Hindi film "Madhumati" to drive home the point that while Prime Minister is enjoying his foreign tours, "people back home are expressing apprehensions that he had forgotten them."

"Suhaana safar aur ye mausam haseen, janta keh rhi hai, 'humein darr hai hum kho na jayein kahin" (loosely translated: it's a pleasant journey in pleasant weather/people say they fear that they are not forgotten).

Reacting to the Prime Minister's "unilateral" announcement of granting e-visas to Chinese tourists, he said that the issue had come up first during the rule of UPA government which had tagged the matter to stapled visas by China to Indians from Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

Noting that Prime Minister's decision had "taken everyone by surprise", he said that when the Foreign Secretary was asked about it just two hours before the PM's announcement, he said no such decision was taken.

"Why those who occupy the highest offices today become self-centric instead of country-centric when they go abroad?" Ahmed Patel, Political Secretary to the Congress President, said on micro-blogging site Twitter.

Party spokesperson, Sushmita Dev, was more scathing. "PM is perceived as a good orator by many but gradually his content is hitting rock bottom," she tweeted.