He abuses Nehru, Indira and yet copies them: Raj takes swipe at Modi

TIL Desk/National/Mumbai/ In a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray said that the term ‘Pradhan Sevak was first coined by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. He said that at the Nehru Memorial Museum in Teen Murti Bhavan in New Delhi, there is a plaque in which Pandit Nehru’s quote is prominently embossed: “Is desh ki janta hame Pradhan Mantri na kahe, pratham sevak kahe.”

“But he (Modi) has merely changed pratham sevak to pradhan sevak,” Thackery pointed out amidst thunderous applause at regular intervals during his campaign speech for the Congress-led 56-party ‘Mahagathbandhan’ here. “You (Modi) will keep on abusing Nehru and Indira Gandhi, but still you copy them. Past five years you have only lied to the country on everything,” Thackeray roared.

He also touched on Modi’s oft-repeated allegation that nobody from the Congress family went to visit Bhagat Singh when he was in jail awaiting the gallows during the freedom struggle.  He played Modi’s earlier speeches on the topic and produced an old newspaper clipping to buttress his argument that Nehru had actually met Bhagat Singh twice in jail.