Rahul, Priyanka criticise Modi for not mentioning Indira Gandhi at Victory Day event

Indian Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra today criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government for not mentioning the name of Indira Gandhi during the official programme on the occasion of Vijay Diwas to mark India's victory over Pakistan in the 1971 war that led to the emergence of independent Bangladesh.

Rahul, who was in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand to launch his party's campaign for assembly polls, was quoted by ANI as saying that the former PM Indira Gandhi's name was not even mentioned once during the Indian government's commemorative event in Delhi, reports our New Delhi correspondent.

"Today a function was held in Delhi regarding the Bangladesh war. There was no mention of Indira Gandhi in that function. The woman who took 32 bullets for this country, her name was not there in the invitation because this government is afraid of the truth," ANI quoted Rahul as saying in Dehradun, capital of Uttarakhand.

Taking to Twitter, Congress General Secretary Priyanka accused the Modi government of being "misogynistic".

"Our first and only woman Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi is being left out of the misogynist BJP government's Vijay Diwas celebrations. This, on the 50th anniversary of the day that she led India to victory and liberated Bangladesh," she tweeted.

"@narendramodi ji, women don't believe your platitudes. Your patronising attitude is unacceptable. It's about time you started giving women their due," she said in another tweet.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi, while speaking at the closing ceremony yesterday of the party's celebrations of Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, had said late prime minister Indira Gandhi, who played a pivotal role in the war, would have wanted the party to celebrate "not in a boastful spirit or a spirit of self-glorification, but in a spirit of reflection and resolve", an apparent jibe at the Modi dispensation.