Viraat row: Cong alleges Modi 'demeaning' office of PM, spreading 'lies' as he faces imminent defeat

A day after he accused Rajiv Gandhi of using warship INS Viraat as a "personal taxi" for a family holiday, the Congress alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is spreading canards and lies during elections and said it proves his "imminent defeat".

Modi is a "Master of Dis-Information" and his party is "Bahut Jhooth Party" (BJP), Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters on Thursday, adding to the long list of name calling by parties against each other in the ongoing Lok Sabha election.

Singhvi alleged that PM Modi was spreading disinformation and lies about former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi taking his family on INS Viraat when he was in office and quoted former Navy chief Admiral (Retd.) L Ramdas and other Naval officers of the time that Gandhi was on an official visit then.

"Lies, propaganda and canards can never succeed beyond a very short shelf-life. Truth has to triumph. Howsoever much the 'Bahut Jhooth Party' will try to spread disinformation, the people of India know the truth," he told reporters, adding that the people of India will not be swayed by such statements.

The Congress leader accused Modi of "demeaning" the office of Prime Minister and said "you have regressed far from progressing".

He asked what relation does Rajiv Gandhi's visit to a Naval ship have "in 2019, to the issue of jobs he promised in the air and to agricultural distress or demonetisation which crushed our MSMEs".

Singhvi also said that people know when a party revives a citizenship issue in the middle of elections after five years in power, "without a shred of legal or factual finding against Congress President Rahul Gandhi, it is only proving their own frustration on knowing their defeat".

"This kind of disinformation is not new, it makes Mr Modi and his government hold a Guinness record on lies and propaganda," he said.

Singhvi said the BJP attacked former PM Rajiv Gandhi on Bofors omitting to even mention about the 2004 judgement, which the BJP never appealed. In 2018, the case was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

"I cannot imagine how a PM in the middle of the election in 2019 can talk about a former PM who has been dead for over 30 years and about his purported visit to a naval ship.

"It is nothing but Mr Modi and the BJP trying to hide their failures. It is abject acceptance and surrender to defeat, knowing the internal reports and the booth reports of the 5 phases," he said.