Gandhi family has never accorded respect to non-Gandhi Congress leaders: Pralhad Joshi

Agartala: Union minister Pralhad Joshi on Sunday alleged that the Gandhi family has never accorded respect to non-Gandhi Congress leaders.

He dismissed the Congress accusation that the Centre insulted Manmohan Singh, the country's first Sikh prime minister, by performing his last rites at Nigambodh Ghat instead of a designated spot that could be turned into his memorial as "unfortunate and cheap politics".

"Despite our ideological and political differences with former prime minister Manmohan Singh, he is the most respectful person. Union Home Minister Amit Shah following the wish of Prime Minister Narendra Modi had taken all possible initiatives to accord full state honour to Singh's funeral", he told PTI.

He claimed, "Not only former prime minister (Manmohan Singh), the Congress did not accord due respect to another former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao and former president Pranab Mukherjee. Now Pranab Mukherjee's daughter said that the Congress did not convene a CWC meeting after the death of her father."

"In fact, the Gandhi family has never given respect to the non-Gandhi Congress leaders. They did not even give the Bharat Ratna award to former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao and respect to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The Gandhi family must introspect on all these", he added.

Joshi, the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution & New and Renewable Energy, is on a two-day visit to Tripura to review the centrally sponsored schemes of his ministries.