Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma Sunday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of lowering the political discourse to gutter level by calling Rajiv Gandhi "corrupt".
The former Union minister alleged that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was running away from the "real issues" and trying to divert the people's attention.
Addressing an election rally in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, Modi had targeted the former prime minister while attacking Congress president Rahul Gandhi and said, "Your father was termed Mr Clean by his courtiers, but his life ended as bhrashtachari (corrupt) no 1."
"The PM yesterday made irresponsible statement. What he said about late Rajiv Gandhi is unacceptable," Sharma said while addressing media here.
"Modi is known for making shockingly insulting statements about his opponents and predecessors. Rajiv Gandhi was a martyred PM of the country. Modi should not forget Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by terrorists," Sharma said.
"Modi will go down in the history as the only PM since India's independence who dragged political discourse to gutter level. I would like to tell him that history does not forget those who insult martyrs," he added.
Canvassing here for Congress candidate Pawan Kumar Bansal who is pitted against BJP candidate Kirron Kher and AAP's Harmohan Dhawan, Sharma further said Modi failed to fulfil poll promises and hurt the country's economy with his "flawed decisions."
"The BJP is running away from real issues. If somebody asks Modi about the status of poll promises they made during 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he raises objection. He does not want to give answers. But we want his accountability to be fixed and he must answer on what he had promised," said Sharma.
The Congress leader accused Modi of inflicting enormous damage to the country's economy with his flawed decisions like demonetisation and implementation of GST.
"Crores of people lost their jobs and factories were shut down. Demonetisation led to wiping off 2 per cent of the GDP. There has been a monumental mismanagement of economy under the watch of Modi who has no understanding of economics. By reckless decisions and authoritarian functioning, he has inflicted enormous damage to Indian economy," he said.
He also lashed out at Modi for trying to make "political gains" out of actions of the armed forces.
"Did you ever see former PM (Manmohan Singh) talking about army actions," he said, adding that Lashkar-e-Taiba and its leaders including Hafiz Saeed were declared as terrorists by UN security council within in two weeks of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
"During the 2009 elections, Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi never asked for votes on this issue," he said.
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