Congress backs Rahul, says Modi has realised where he stands

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday snubbed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi over his jibe that party general secretary Rahul Gandhi is an "international leader" and can contest election in Italy also.

"What should we say about Modi, who has lost all dignity. Yes, this is true that Rahul Gandhi is a leader of the biggest democracy. Unfortunately this is not said about Modi but only about Rahul. It is better that the Gujarat chief minister has realised where does he stand," party spokesperson Renuka Chowdhary told reporters in the national capital.

Addressing a convention in Rajkot, Modi had on Monday said, "Recently a Congress leader made a statement that Rahul Gandhi is a national leader of Congress and I am a regional leader... I am proud to be a regional leader of Gujarat. Rahul is not a national leader but an international leader and he can contest election in India as well as in Italy."

The Congress hit back at the Gujarat Chief Minister saying he had lost all dignity and realised where he stood.

He was apparently targeting the foreign origin issue of his mother Sonia Gandhi.

Last week, when asked whether the forthcoming election in Gujarat will be a "Modi Vs Rahul" affair, Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi had said that comparison cannot be made as Rahul is Congress's national leader while Modi is regional leader of Gujarat.

On Sunday, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh described Modi as a regional leader and Rahul a national one.

Rejecting the criticism by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of government for pushing the reforms, Chowdhary shot back "should we not bring reform and run the government like the BJP did... The reform will continue. There is no other way and we want to go ahead taking everybody along".

She also hit back at the BJP for its criticism of the FDI in multi-brand retail saying that the Opposition party has "not got a backbone" and hence it changes posture in quick succession. She was responding to a question about BJP's proposal in past to introduce 26 per cent FDI in retail.

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