The Congress on Friday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not paying homage to former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri at his memorial Vijay Ghat on his 111th birth anniversary. "What could have prevented the Prime Minister from going to Vijay Ghat, where the President, the Vice-President and also the Congress chief paid homage to Shastri? It is unfortunate the PM did not visit Vijay Ghat, which is very close to Raj Ghat, where he paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi today," said senior Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken. [related-post] Shastri's son and Congress leader Anil Shastri tried to downplay the issue. "It is the PM’s choice as to whom to pay homage to. He could have been genuinely busy. It [Vijay Ghat] is a few minutes drive from the Raj Ghat," he said. But he added it was the first time in 50 years that a Prime Minister had not paid homage at Vijay Ghat. Modi, meanwhile, paid his tributes to Shastri on Twitter.
