HYDERABAD: Grandson of P V Narasimha Rao on Thursday hit back at a senior Congress leader for his allegations against the former Prime Minister and sought an apology from the Gandhi family for "injustice" done to him.
N V Subhash said AICC Secretary G Chinna Reddy's statement that Rao had tried to "sideline" the Nehru-Gandhi family during his tenure was "not true and condemnable".
"Rao was the most trusted and loyal leader for Gandhi family and always guided the family on many issues", he claimed.
Subhash joined the BJP in 2014 and is one of the official spokespersons of the Telangana unit of the party.
He alleged that the Congresss always neglected the leaders other than those from the Nehru-Gandhi family, especially late P V Narasimha Rao.
"It is very clear and evident that his dead body was not even allowed to enter the headquarters of AICC in Delhi", Subhash told PTI.
"All the former PM's memorial was built in New Delhi except that of Rao's which shows the indifferent attitude of the Congress leaders".
During his tenure, Rao never sidelined or suppressed the Gandhi family, he said.
On every occasion, Sonia Gandhi was very well informed about the party activities, development inititives taken up by the government, Cabinet expansions, election process, campaign and allotment of tickets in Assembly elections, he claimed.
"In fact, on many occasions, Rao personally met Sonia Gandhi and apprised her", he said.
"But she was neither interested in politics nor wanted her kids to get into politics.
So, where is the question of suppressing the family?" Subash asked.
Reddy, a former Congress minister in the undivided Andhra Pradesh, had also sought to blame Rao over the Babri Masjid demolition in December, 1992 when he was the prime minister, saying it alienated Muslims from the party.
To this, Subhash said Rao took all the necessary steps to stop its demolition.
"If it is true (that the demolition alienated Muslims from Congress) then how is it possible that the Congress was in power from 2004 to 2014?" Alleging that Congress leaders always gave credit to Nehru-Gandhi family for success but discredited Rao for party's failures, he said the Congress never talked about the economic liberalisation policy initiated by the Narasimha Rao government.
"At least now, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and entire coterie of Gandhi family and Congress should apologise to the nation for the injustice done to Narasimha Rao", he said.
They should recognise Rao's services by paying him rich tributes on the occasion of his 98th birth anniversary tomorrow, he added.
Meanwhile, Chinna Reddy said he had great respect for the late leader and did not mean to insult him.
"It is politics when Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Congress insulted PV (Narasimha Rao) and Pranab (Mukherjee). Congress respected them a lot," he said.
Observing that his remarks against Narasimha Rao led to some misunderstanding, he said he regretted if anyone was hurt by the comments.
The Congress gave opportunities to the two leaders as both of them were great intellectuals, he said.
A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of neglecting its leader and former Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and others, Chinna Reddy alleged the late leader had tried to "sideline" the Nehru-Gandhi family during his tenure.
"PV Narasimha Rao ji tried to politically suppress the family, Sonia Gandhi ji and Congress party, which helped him become Prime Minister.
He tried to sideline that family (fearing) he might not get Prime Minister's post again," Reddy told reporters at the Congress state headquarters here on Wednesday.
He also appeared to criticise Mukherjee, saying he was a great parliamentarian and a great administrator, but accepted the RSS invite to speak at its meeting in Nagpur.