"Your Nana-Nanis Collaborated With British": Congress' Reply To PM's Jibe

The Congress has launched a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his nana-nani, dada-dadi (grandparents) jibe that he took at a rally in Chhattisgarh on Friday. Party leader Kapil Sibal, in an apparent dig at BJP's ideological mentor RSS, said today that the party's ancestors were siding with the British when Jawahar Lal Nehru was laying the foundation of a modern India.

"Modiji asks Rahulji : 'Did your Nana Nani Dada Dadi lay water pipelines? Ask how you got drinking water at platform? When you were young, Nehruji laid the foundation of a modern industrial India. But your party's Nana Nanis Dada Dadis collaborated with the British," he wrote on Twitter.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at a rally in Ambikapur that the Congress that had governed India for most of its independent history had strived to improve the fortunes of the Nehru-Gandhi family rather than develop the country.

"Why didn't you do it for 100 years? You were around for four generations but why didn't you do it? Can you answer that? Did you lay down water pipelines? Did your nana-nani, dada-dadi (grandparents) lay it down? And did Raman Singh come and destroy it? First you give us an account of why you did not do it. Then come and ask us why we couldn't," PM Modi said.

Congress leader P Chidamabaram also slammed the Prime Minister in a series of tweets.

To jog PM Modi's memory: among the Congress Presidents since 1947 were Acharya Kripalani,Pattabhi Sitaramayya,Purushottamdas Tandon,U N Dhebar,Sanjiva Reddy,Sanjivaiah,

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 17, 2018

Kamaraj,Nijalingappa,C Subramanian,Jagjivan Ram,Shankar Dayal Sharma,D K Barooah,Brahmananda Reddy,P V Narasimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 17, 2018

Grateful that PM Modi is concerned about who is elected as Congress President and he devotes a lot of time talking about it. Will he spend half the time and speak about demonetisation, GST, Rafale, CBI and the RBI?

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 17, 2018

Will PM Modi speak about farmers' suicides, massive unemployment, lynchings, rape crimes against women and children, anti-Romeo squads, gau rakshak vigilantism and increasing terror attacks?

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 17, 2018

We are proud of the humble origins of our post-Independence leaders like Babasaheb Ambedkar, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Kamaraj, Dr Manmohan Singh and many others. Pre-Independence, there were thousands like them.

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) November 17, 2018

Last month, Congress President Rahul Gandhi had alleged that the right-wing hero Veer Savarkar had collaborated with the British. "Prime Minister Narendra Modi kept the portrait of Veer Savarkar in Parliament....When British were ruling this country, when all the Congress leaders were in prison, Veer Savarkar wrote a letter to the British. He was not veer (gallant)," he said.