PM Modi invokes Nehru to distract attention from his own 'failures': Cong

The Congress on Sunday hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, charging that defamation of Jawaharlal Nehru and minimum democratic governance was his model.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Prime Minister Modi has an "obsession" with Nehru as he invokes him to distract the nation's attention from his own failures and current challenges on which he maintains a complete silence.

The Congress attack on the prime minister came a day after he attacked the party during the debate on the 'Glorious 75 year journey of India's Constitution'.

"It was the famous French philosopher Voltaire who had first said that if God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.For our self-anointed divinity - if Nehru had not existed, it would have been necessary to invent him," Ramesh said.

The Congress leader asked what would the prime minister do without Nehru, for whom he has a pathological obsession?  "Nehru is necessary to distract the nation's attention from His own failures. Nehru is necessary to divert the nation's attention from current challenges on which He maintains a complete silence," the Congress leader said.

He also said that Nehru is necessary to deny the nation's many achievements before May 2014.

Prime Minister Modi on Saturday accused the Congress of repeatedly mutilating the Constitution, having "tasted blood" in its "greed" for power, as he asserted that his government's policies and decisions since 2014 have been aimed at boosting India's strength and unity in line with the vision of the Constitution.