New Delhi : Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Monday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he has insulted the people of Kerala by denying permission to Chief Minister Oomen Chandy from attending a function.
“The Prime Minister of this country has insulted the people of Kerala. He has stopped our Chief Minister from going to a function.
The CM of Kerala represents the people of Kerala. He is the choice of their people and the Prime Minister has insulted them which is not acceptable,” Rahul told reporters here.
Asserting that this incident highlighted the ‘thinking’ of the Prime Minister, Rahul added that that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre needed to change their way of functioning.
“Exclude the CM in Kerala, stop me from entering the temple in Assam, kill Dalits in Punjab. This is Narendra Modi ji’s thinking and it is not acceptable to us and to the people of India. They (BJP) need to change their way of functioning,” Rahul added.
The Congress has been livid over the exclusion of Chandy from the function to be attended by Prime Minister Modi to unveil a statue of former chief minister R Sankar.
“The Chief Minister was first invited and then the organisers told him it that would be better if he could stay away from the event. People of Kerala want to know as to who are these forces behind the organisers who have kept him away from attending the event,” Senior Congress leader AK Antony said.
Chandy said in a statement that protocol demanded that when the Prime Minister is in the state, the Chief Minister should take part, but since the organisers who invited him have requested him to stay away, he would not be attending the event.
