Congress today dismissed as a "good joke" a survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF) showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the 10th most admired personality globally.
Senior Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said that with powerful world leaders like Germany's Angela Merkel and Russia's Vladmir Putin out of the list, the survey has "no credibility" and is "not worth the paper on which it has been written".
He suggested that it was a different question if the Prime Minister wanted a "certificate".
Noting that WEF is just a "commercial think tank", Sharma, a former Commerce and Industry Minister, said one could become a member after giving 50,000 dollars.
The survey ranked South African President Nelson Mandela on the top.
In the survey, Mahatma Gandhi is ranked fourth most admired leader. The survey is of more than 1,000 millennials. The respondents were spread across 285 cities in 125 countries.
After Mandela, the WEF's Global Shapers Annual Survey 2015 found that Pope Francis is the second most admired leader. Others in the list are Tesla Motors' CEO Elon Musk (3rd rank), Microsoft Founder Bill Gates (5), US President Barack Obama (6th), Virgin Group Founder Richard Branson (7), Apple Founder Steve Jobs (8), Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus (9) and US investor Warren Buffett (11).
