Congress President Rahul Gandhi (PTI) Congress President Rahul Gandhi (PTI)

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of insulting Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel by sourcing from China material for Patel’s statue in Gujarat.

Addressing a rally at Chitrakoot in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, Rahul said the Prime Minister was building the world’s tallest statue, but he was insulting Patel because his statue will have the label of “made in China” and not “made in India’’.

The Congress leader began his two-day visit of the poll-bound state by visiting Kamtanath temple. On his earlier visit to the state, he was welcomed to Bhopal by the Congress as “Shiv Bhakt”. On Thursday, he was greeted with posters at several places that described him as “Ram Bhakt”.

Rahul made the “made in China” remark while speaking on the issue of unemployment. He said China was taking away lakhs of jobs that could have come to India’s unemployed youths. Rahul went on to add that he wanted to replace the “made in China” tag with “made in Chitrakoot” and names of other Indian cities in the next few years. “I want to see a Chinese youth take a selfie with a Made in Chitrakoot phone and wonder where the place is located,’’ he said.

“We will spend our energy to create and provide jobs,’’ Rahul said, adding that people were looking at the Congress to show the way.

Amit Shah slams Cong chief

New Delhi: BJP chief Amit Shah accused the “Gandhi family” of humiliating Sardar Patel after Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on the Patel statue. “Dear @Rahul Gandhi,your family humiliated Sardar Patel, unsuccessfully tried to erase his legacy from the people’s hearts and minds. Your lies on the ‘Statue of Unity’ is another display of your visceral hatred towards Sardar Patel,” Shah wrote on Twitter. “At a time when India is uniting to pay tributes to Sardar Patel by building a grand ‘Statue of Unity’ the Congress president is spreading canards to discredit the project. Shame!” he said in another tweet. — ENS

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