Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi for breaking the "well-laid tradition" of not speaking against the government on foreign soil, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said the Modi government does not need a certificate for its performance from the Congress vice president.
He also had a dig at Gandhi, saying it took him years to understand that Congress lost power due to its "arrogance", and for that he had to go all the way to California for the realisation.
"Rahul Gandhi is breaking the well-laid tradition of Indian polity --that is when you go abroad, you don't speak ill about the government," he told reporters here.
He was asked to respond to Gandhi's criticism of the Modi government at an event at the University of California in Berkeley in the US.
"We used to go abroad at the height of corruption by Manmohan Singh government, but we never spoke like this. We were muted despite international outcry," the Law minster said.
He said the BJP does not expect the Congress leader to appreciate its work. But at the same time, the government does not require a certificate from the opposition party.
"Can Rahul Gandhi appreciate us? We don't want a certificate of our performance from Rahul Gandhi -- a person who is not ready to accept that his party has lost elections in a big way. It took him years to understand that Congress was arrogant and to accept that he had to go to California," he said taking a swipe at the Congress leader.
In his speech in the US, Gandhi criticised Modi, accusing him of divisive politics and causing "tremendous damage" to India's economy with "reckless and dangerous" decisions like demonetisation and GST.
He also argued that India was being run by dynasties and cited the examples of Samajwadi Party, DMK and even Bollywood.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)