"It is a historical fact that RSS did not hoist the national flag at their headquarters in Nagpur for 52 long years after Independence. It is only after the Vajpayee government came to power in 2002, did they start hoisting the national flag," AICC Communication Department Chief Randeep Surjewala said in a statement.
Alleging that the recent incident in Russia when the Prime Minister walked past the guard of honour even while the National Anthem was being played shows his "deliberate or inadvertent lack of respect for national icons", the Congress leader insisted it is "not merely a protocol gaffe".
"Nationalism BJP/Modi "Ishtyle". Any comments from Modi Acolytes?" AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh tweeted.
Former Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said on Twitter,"Spending so much time abroad seems to have made PM forget what the Indian National Anthem sounds like. He walked in Moscow as Anthem played!"
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After former Law Minister and party spokesperson Ashwani Kumar said the nation is "shocked and deeply hurt" at the incident, Surjewala issued an official statement criticising the Prime Minister and suggesting a pattern behind what happened in Moscow.
Maintaining that all over the world, it is customary to stand still while the national anthem is played and that the Prime Minister, especially while traveling abroad, represents 1.2 billion people of our country, the Congress leader said, "When he does not give due respect to our national anthem, he is hurting the dignity of our country."
Surjewala said the incident was "insulting" to the
collective dignity of the people of the nation.
"National flags and national anthems are not mere symbols. They stand for the identity, integrity and the dignity of the nation. Any mark of disrespect shown to these icons of national identity is insulting the collective dignity of the people of this nation.
"It is with utmost sadness that Indian National Congress is forced to condemn the behavior of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, because of his evident lack of respect either for the national flag or the national anthem," Surjewala said.
"His comment in South Korea that how people earlier used to think what sin they had committed to have been born in India and how this has now changed reflects utter lack of respect for Indian people and his narcissist belief that he is the only messiah to have been born in the history of our 5000 year old great civilization," Surjewala said.
Maintaining that political parties come and go, but there has always been continuity in all governments as far as maintaining the dignity of India is concerned, he said," Modi's habit of taking domestic politics to foreign soil and denigrating previous Congress governments and Prime Ministers is in sheer bad state that speaks poorly not only of him, but is an embarrassment for all self-respecting people of this country.
"His and his party's attack on Pandit Nehru, a visionary and the first Prime Minister of India, is nothing but a feeble attempt to destroy country's own legacies. Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru are not just Congress leaders. Their legacy belongs to the whole nation, to the world. In all his wisdom, Modi and his party's behavior is reminiscent of behavior of Taliban," he said.
Surjewala said it is high time that Modi wakes up to the fact that he is not just the Prime Minister of BJP, but he is the Prime Minister of a great nation called India.
After the Prime Minister stepped onto the tarmac, a Russian official made a gesture with his hand which appeared Modi misinterpreted and started walking. However, another official stopped Modi from walking following which he stepped back and stood in attention.