Word 'pradhan sevak' was used first by Nehru: Raj

Launching a scathing attack on Narendra Modi, MNS president Raj Thackeray on Friday said that the term "pradhan sevak" used by the prime minister was first used by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

"You will abuse Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi but would copy them," Thackeray said addressing a mammoth rally at Nanded in Marathwada region of Maharashtra.

"At the Nehru Memorial Museum at Teen Murti Bhavan in New Delhi, there is a plaque in which the quote of Pandit Nehru is embossed..... 'is desh ki janta hame pradhan mantri na kahe, pratham sevak kahe.... he (Modi) changed pratham sevak to pradhan sevak," Thackeray said.

During the rally, he also played one of the speeches of Modi in which he said that when Bhagat Singh was in jail no one from Congress family went to see him.

Thackeray then pulled out an old newspaper clipping which stated that Pandit Nehru had met him twice in jail.

"What does he mean by Congress family..... was it Gandhi's family, Nehru's family, Patel's family, Maulana Azad's family, Sarojini Naidu's family..... it was obvious reference to Nehru," he said.

"If it was Nehru, he had visited twice... if it was Indira (Gandhi), she was then just 14..... the question of Rajiv (Gandhi), Sanjay (Gandhi), Sonia (Gandhi), Rahul (Gandhi) and Priyanka (Gandhi Vadra) does not arise, " he said.