IANS/New Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s jibe at the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government during his recent Canada trip was “regrettable” and “nothing less than disgraceful,” party MP Shashi Tharoor said here yesterday.
During his address to the Indian diaspora at the Ricoh Coliseum in Toronto on April 16, Modi said his government would “clean up” the “dirt” left behind by the previous government and said there was a new atmosphere of trust in India.
People cheered him when Modi, while referring to his mission to clean India and root out corruption, said in Hindi: “Jinhone gandgi karni thee, woh kar ke chale gaye. Lekin hum safai kar ke jayenge (Those who created scams and dirt have now gone, we will clean up the mess).”
The prime minister drew the biggest applause when he said his mission is “Skill India while their’s was Scam India.”
Tharoor criticised Modi for his remarks.
“Saying that abroad was not healthy. Political speechifying is normal in any democracy, but you do it at home. We have always held the view that our political differences should stop at the waters’ edge. And that’s why it was rather regrettable that the prime minister spoke in that way about his predecessors,” Tharoor said in an interview.
“After all, the leaders he is meeting have also met the leaders who were his predecessors, and it is rather insulting. Imagine if I come to you and say: ‘Ah, the previous person who was in my job was a useless chap’. That is not a nice thing to do to an outsider. And I think that really was nothing less than disgraceful.”
The Congress has also challenged Modi’s claim that his Canada visit was the first bilateral by an Indian prime minister in 42 years. The party says former prime minister Manmohan Singh went to Canada in 2010.
The Modi government claims it was the first “stand alone visit.”
Tharoor said: “How does stand-alone matter. The statement made was that it was the first visit to Canada in 42 years, which is factually incorrect. And they also tried to explain it was a bilateral visit, and that Manmohan Singh’s was allegedly a G20 visit; but the truth is that Manmohan Singh did both the G20 and the bilateral with the Canadian prime minister.
“You can go on the website of prime minister of Canada, there is an account of the bilateral, the word ‘bilateral’ is used, summit between the two of them. So stand-alone is a peculiar concept; neither Anand Sharma nor I, who have both been ministers in the external affairs ministry, see much of a distinction there. It’s a question of whether you have had a bilateral visit or not; and yes we have had it five years ago.”
Tharoor also said his party would oppose the land acquisition bill “tooth and nail” as well as any “divisive and confrontational” policies of the government.
The former UN official also termed Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s address at a farmer’s rally here as a “new boost” to the party’s momentum.
Tharoor, a Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, said the party had been “very constructive in parliament” and had supported the BJP-led government on the insurance bill.

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