Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi talking to media at Chowdhury Charan Singh Airport in Lucknow before leaving for New Delhi on Wednesday. (PTI Photo)
On the last day of his visit to his constituency Amethi, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi kept up his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"I am a proud Indian like everyone else. All of us are proud Indians," he said, taking a dig at the Prime Minister's statement in China and Korea that had drawn widespread criticism on social media. The Congress had taken exception to the remarks.
Reiterating his earlier "suit-boot Ki Sarkar" jibe, Mr Gandhi said the NDA government was not for the poor but the industrialists. "The farmers are in distress, affected by hailstorm, they have not received compensation", but the government is busy helping the industrialists, he had told the media at the Lucknow airport.
PM Modi's comments and his selfie with Chinese premier Li Kequiang had drawn barbs from the Congress.
"Earlier, you felt ashamed of being born Indian. Now you feel proud to represent the country," PM Modi had said in Shanghai. "There was a time when people used to say we don't know what sins we committed in our past life that we were born in Hindustan," he had reiterated in Korea.
At the All India Congress Committee briefing on Tuesday, former Union Minister Kapil Sibal said, "We are really pained over the remarks as no leader in independent India has ever made such a statement."
Mr Gandhi, who was on a three-day tour of Amethi - a first since he returned from his 57-day sabbatical - had alleged that his constituency was not being treated fairly.
"Representatives of all parties unanimously agreed that the Central government is not treating Amethi fairly, whether it is the PMGSY (PM Gram sadak Yojana) or the Indira Awas Yojana," he said.
The 44-year-old has accused the Prime Minister of cancelling permission for a massive food park in Amethi because of "politics of revenge".