PM has insulted people of Kerala, says Rahul Gandhi on Oommen Chandy row

New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Monday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying he has insulted the people of Kerala by denying permission to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy from attending a function.

"The Prime Minister of this country has insulted the people of Kerala. He has stopped our Chief Minister from going to a function. The CM of Kerala represents the people of Kerala. He is the choice of their people and the Prime Minister has insulted them which is not acceptable," Rahul told reporters here.

Asserting that this incident highlighted the 'thinking' of the Prime Minister, Rahul added that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre needed to change their way of functioning.

"Exclude the CM in Kerala, stop me from entering the temple in Assam, kill Dalits in Punjab. This is Narendra Modi ji's thinking and it is not acceptable to us and to the people of India. They (BJP) need to change their way of functioning," Rahul added.

The Congress has been livid over the exclusion of Chandy from the function to be attended by Prime Minister Modi to unveil a statue of former chief minister R Sankar.

"The Chief Minister was first invited and then the organisers told him it that would be better if he could stay away from the event. People of Kerala want to know as to who are these forces behind the organisers who have kept him away from attending the event," Senior Congress leader AK Antony said.

The Congress also created storm in Parliament on Monday over the ‘insult’ meted out to the CM by SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan on the R. Sankar statue issue.

In a press note, Chandy had stated earlier that he was “deeply saddened” for keeping away from the function following a request from Vellappally Natesan.

Chandy said that though he should have been present at the function being attended by the PM and also because Sankar was a former CM and KPCC chief, he was forced to stay away following the organisers' request.