PM Modi appeared in an interview a day ahead of the first phase of voting in UP.
Two days after delivering his most acerbic public indictment of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru - arguably his party's favourite political target, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said there was nothing personal about it.
"I did not say anything about anyone's father, mother or grandfather. I only shared what the country's Prime Minister had said," PM Modi said, responding to a question on Rahul Gandhi's statement that he did not need a certificate from the PM on his grandfather.
The Prime Minister had referred to Jawaharlal Nehru and quoted him extensively as he tore into the opposition Congress in the parliament recently.
Tackling criticism of inflation on his watch, PM Modi had gone back to Jawaharlal Nehru's address to the nation from the Red Fort as India's first Prime Minister where he had said that the war on Korea was causing inflation in India.
Reacting to PM Modi's references to the first Prime Minister, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi had said, "If you (PM Modi) like abusing Congress or Nehru, be my guest. But at least do your job. The PM is scared because we speak the truth. My great grandfather served this country. He gave his entire life to the country. I don't need a certificate from the PM for my great grandfather."
"I just shared what were the views of one prime minister and what was the situation then, and this is the current prime minister and what are his views now," PM Modi said on Mr Gandhi's reaction.
It is the right of the country to know, he added.
"They keep saying I don't mention Jawaharlal Nehru enough, now they have a problem even when I do. I can't understand why are they so afraid," he said.
Attacking "Congress culture", the PM said that except Atal Bihari Vajpayee and himself, all the Prime Ministers this country has got so far were from the "Congress school".
"This is the reason why Congress's work culture became mainstream in the country's politics," he said, before taking a swipe at the grand old party's style of work.
"Congress's style of work, ideology and likes and dislikes are based on communalism, casteism, linguistic discrimination, regionalism, corruption and nepotism," the PM said and added that it will harm the nation severely if all of this stays in the political mainstream.
Explaining what he means by "Congress mukt Bharat (Congress-free India) - the now popular slogan by the BJP - he claimed it has nothing to with the noun Congress.
"Like how we criticise the communists...they are not in power anymore, except for sitting in a corner in Kerala. Even then, that ideology is dangerous. Similarly, the way that the Congress has shaped the mainstream political character, it's destroying the nation," he said.