Would have been appropriate for PM to recall Rajiv Gandhi's contribution: Cong on Biden's nuclear-weapons-free world pitch

As US President Joe Biden vowed to strive towards a world free of nuclear weapons, the Congress on Saturday said it would have been appropriate for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to recall former PM Rajiv Gandhi's contributions in this regard.

Prime Minister Modi is in Hiroshima to attend the G7 summit.

The US president made the vow as he visited a museum in Hiroshima documenting the devastation caused by a US atomic bomb in 1945 during World War II.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "At Hiroshima, President Biden has vowed to strive for a nuclear weapons-free world. It was on June 9, 1988 that the most comprehensive plan for global nuclear disarmament was first presented to the UN. It was called 'Action Plan for a Nuclear Weapon Free and Non-Violent World Order'."

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"Tomorrow we mark the death anniversary of the Head of Government who submitted this detailed plan. It would have been so appropriate for our PM to recall Rajiv Gandhi's contributions in this regard," Ramesh said on Twitter.

As he unveiled a bust of Mahatma Gandhi, an apostle of peace, in Hiroshima on Saturday, Prime Minister Modi had said the world gets frightened even today when it hears the word 'Hiroshima'.

Biden and the other G-7 leaders, including leaders from fellow nuclear powers Britain and France, made an unprecedented joint visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Japan's Kyodo News agency reported on Saturday.