Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the Congress had dragged his mother into the election campaign because it does not have the courage to confront him, the Hindustan Times reported. The prime minister was responding to Congress leader Raj Babbar, who compared the decline in the value of the rupee to the age of Modi’s mother at a rally on Thursday.

The prime minister, who was addressing a rally in Chhatarpur in Madhya Pradesh, urged the people of the state to reject the Opposition party’s negative politics. “If we go back 15 years, when Congress was in power, everyone knows about the condition of Madhya Pradesh,” he said. “Do not let them to come to power again.” Modi is also scheduled to address a rally in Mandsaur, while Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah will address a rally and participate in a roadshow in Ashoknagar in Gwalior.

Modi said the Congress was unwilling to talk about how the country has developed because of his government, reported NDTV. “The Congress is not ready to tell what it did when it ruled the country for four decades, it is not ready to discuss what it did during its rule in MP [Madhya Pradesh],” he said. “It is their four decades versus my four years of governance.”

The prime minister also brought up the Bofors scandal and the Bhopal gas tragedy. “Before you criticise Shivraj [Singh Chouhan], also remember your ‘mama’ [maternal uncles] Quattrocchi and Anderson, who were flown to America in a special plane,” Modi said, referring to suspected Bofors middleman Ottavio Quattrocchi and former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson, who was responsible for the Bhopal gas tragedy. “The person responsible for the death of thousands in Bhopal was allowed to leave the country quietly.”