‘If he was such a great person…’: PM Modi asks why does Gandhi family shy away from Nehru surname

New Delhi: Targeting an apparent jibe at Gandhis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked why the family was not using the Nehru surname. ‘If Nehru was such a great person, why does the family shy away from using the ‘Nehru’ surname’, Modi asked while speaking in Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Using his speech to attack the Congress, he said PM Modi Congress governments at the Centre dismissed 90 state governments by ‘misusing’ the Article 356 of the Constitution. (Under this Article, if a state government is unable to function according to Constitutional provisions, the Union government can take direct control of the state machinery). He said former prime minister Indira Gandhi ‘misused’ Article 356 fifty times to dismiss elected state governments.

As soon as Modi began his speech, Opposition members rushed to the centre of the house and demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation into allegations against billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate.