New Delhi: Congress leaders, including party chief Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh, on Wednesday stayed away from a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for African leaders, apparently sending a message that the party was outraged over an “insult" to the legacy of Jawaharlal Nehru, a Press Trust of India report said on Wednesday.

“What purpose it would have served as the Modi government has insulted the author (Nehru) of India-Africa relationship," a senior Congress leader, who declined to be identified.

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge and Deputy leader of the party in the Upper House Anand Sharma were among others invited for the dinner.

Noting that calling such conference of African leaders was the idea floated by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance way back in 2006, the Congress leader said the Prime Minister is projecting it as his “original idea".

“Let the Prime Minister blow his own trumpet, we have chosen not to be part of the audience," the leader said. When asked if the Congress has boycotted the dinner hosted by Modi, spokesperson in the external affairs ministry Vikas Swarup said he had no information about this.

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