Congress leader Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching personal attacks on him and levelling allegations against him to "digress" from the "glaring" issues facing the country.
Soon after Modi in a rally in Haryana's Kurukshetra alluded to alleged corruption in land deals, Vadra took to social networking sites Twitter and Facebook to say he has "suffered harassment" at the hands of the Modi government in the last five years and that the prime minister was "insulting" the judiciary with his remarks that he will send him to jail.
"This chowkidar has brought the corrupt who looted farmers' land in Delhi and Haryana to the gates of jails. Those who behaved as if they were kings have been made to run around the ED and the courts. With your blessings, justice will be done to the farmers and the corrupt will be put behind bars," Modi said at the rally, without naming anyone.
Vadra took to Twitter to hit back at Modi over the remarks.
"Please stop these personal attacks on me. By passing such remarks, you insult our honourable judicial system. I have full faith in the Indian judiciary and the truth shall prevail. God save the country," Vadra tweeted.
In a Facebook post addressed to the prime minister, Vadra said, "I am shocked to hear my name again in your rally. There are glaring issues such as poverty, joblessness, women empowerment etc which are staring right at you, but you chose to talk about me, out of everything else."
"I have been at the receiving end for the last 5 years of complete harassment, by your government. Relentless notices from various agencies, courts and tax departments, to simply mentally pressurise me.
"11 times being summoned to depose each of 8 to 11 hours with the Enforcement Directorate, in different parts of the country, Court depositions and related orders, etc. BUT NOT ONE allegation has been proven (sic)," he said.
Vadra said he wondered "what did he want to achieve by invoking my name, again and again".
"Simply the nation knows my name is repeatedly used in elections to digress from the failures of your government and their own misdeeds," Vadra alleged.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)