NEW DELHi: Congress today attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his "legacy" remarks in UAE and alleged that he "has earned the dubious distinction of being the first world leader to berate and insult his predecessors on foreign soil."
Noting that this was not the first time that the PM has raked up domestic politics abroad, Congress spokesman R P N Singh said that Modi had made controversial remarks during his official visit to Germany, Canada and China earlier.
Speaking separately, another party spokesman Meem Afzal, said "the Prime Minister should have maintained dignity of the high office he holds. There is no problem if he targets previous governments when he is in the country. But he should have refrained from doing so on foreign soil.
In Germany, the PM had said that India was "begging earlier and will not beg any more, while in Canada, he said that before he became PM, it was "scam India" and he inherited filth and corruption. In China, he had claimed that people had at one point of time consider it as "misfortune" to be born in India and "shameful" to be called an Indian, Singh said.
"Whenever the Prime Minister touches foreign soil, he seems to be losing his mental balance", Singh told reporters adding that "humiliating one's own country on foreign soil is immature leadership".
"Modi has earned the dubious distinction of being the first world leader to berate and insult his predecessors on foreign soil and negate India's proud achievements, just for political artisanship", he claimed.
These statements, Singh said, were "outrageous, a national insult and condemnable"
"It has not been the policy of Congress to criticise the PM, while he is abroad, but today we are forced to say that it would be better if Modi feels ashamed of silently defending corrupt ministers and CMs even at the cost of wasting one full parliament session", Singh said.
Congress has been demanding the resignation of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in Lalit Modi controversy and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan in Vyapam scam.
Another Congress spokesman Sanjay Jha tweeted, "It is abominable that PM Modi continues his pathetic lowbrow jibes at opposition party when abroad. A huge embarrassment"
The Prime Minister, who is the UAE, said "I have got some problems in legacy. I cannot take only the good points and leave aside the problems... Some things were stalled due to the indecisiveness and lethargy of the governments (in the last)... It is my priority to kickstart those things".