Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks against him and his family Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said Mr. Modi had trivialised the PM’s post and the prestige that goes with it.

“I watched the Prime Minister’s speech at Wardha. Instead of providing succour to drought-hit farmers, he was targeting my family… Mr. Modi ought not to worry about my family,” said Mr. Pawar, addressing a rally in Kolhapur on Tuesday evening.

The NCP supremo further said that the Prime Minister’s post was an institution in itself whose prestige must be preserved at all costs.

“Instead, Mr. Modi, with his undignified remarks, has shown that he utterly lacks the responsibility and prudency that goes with the PM’s position,” he said, addidng: “one would have thought that Mr. Modi’s speech would have contained something more substantial as it was delivered at a place where Mahatma Gandhi had lived and worked”.

In his rally at Wardha on Monday Mr. Modi had targeted Mr. Pawar and the NCP, remarking that a dynastic war was brewing within the party in which Mr. Pawar was losing control over his party to his nephew, NCP leader Ajit Pawar.

Mr. Pawar praised Ajit and said he was an excellent administrator and efficient party worker.

“The NCP is not a party of any single individual or individuals. It is a party of the people,” the NCP chief said said.

He also criticised Mr. Modi for always criticising the Nehru- Gandhi family.

“Wherever he goes, the PM targets the Gandhi family in all his speeches…it was Indira Gandhi who created history by decisively defeating Pakistan in the 1971 Indo-Pak war…Sonia Gandhi did not leave the country after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. So, why does Mr. Modi needlessly attack the Gandhi family in an undignified manner?” Mr. Pawar said.