Prime Minister Narendra Modi shaking hands with people at the Civic Reception at City Hall in Brisbane, Australia. (Press Trust of India)
Questioning the genuineness of crowds seen during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's trips abroad, Congress leader Salman Khurshid has suggested that people are taken from India for "slogan-shouting", a comment which has been slammed by the BJP.
Mr Khurshid, former External Affairs Minister, referred Mr Modi's address to the Indian diaspora in Nay Pyi Taw three days back and questioned how a crowd of 20,000 people gathered in the Myanmarese capital where streets are generally empty.
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Yahan se logon ko le ja kar naare lagwa rahe hain (Modi is taking people from here for slogan-shouting abroad)," Mr Khurshid told reporters in Farrukhabad in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday night.
"I have been to Nay Pyi Taw twice. No one is found on the streets there. Then how come 20,000 people came to listen to him (Modi)? It seems he took along many with him," he said.
Mr Modi is on a three-nation tour that started with Myanmar where also he addressed Indians. Mr Khurshid's expression of doubts over the genuineness of public gatherings for Mr Modi abroad came a day ahead of the Prime Minister's scheduled address to NRIs in Sydney, Australia.
Making light of Mr Modi's Madison Square Garden event in September, Mr Khurshid said, "In USA, organising 20,000 people and making them shout slogans is not a big deal."
He said that, "Taking Indians (abroad) and addressing NRIs, will not help... India will benefit if he (Modi) influences American leaders and American people... here (in India) he has already influenced people."
Slamming Mr Khurshid's comments, BJP leader and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said, "It is bankruptcy of Congress."
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said, "It is sheer frustration of the Congress party that it says that the Prime Minister takes his own people to create a crowd abroad."