New Delhi, May 7 (IANS): The Congress party on Tuesday criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "ridiculing" armed forces, "using" them for electoral gains and making "cheap" political comments that has "lowered" the dignity of his office as well as the country.

Addressing a press conference here, Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said: "Modiji has misused the defence forces like never before. He said surgical strikes (during UPA's time) were like security personnel playing video games or those were on paper. He is ridiculing security forces."

According to him, many defence veterans have taken exception to Modi's comments.

"Also, Modiji used posters of defence personnel during election campaigning. It's cheap politics."

The Congress leader said Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shifted goal posts whenever they were "busted" on issues such as employment, black money and economy, among others.

Singhvi also slammed Modi for calling former Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi "corrupt", saying he had been given clean chit in Bofors deal case by the high court in 2005 and later by Supreme Court in 2018.

"How appropriate it is to attack dead people, who can't defend themselves? The Prime Minister is running helter skelter in fear and frustration, from issue to issue and from pillar to post," he said.

"Modiji is not just lowering the dignity of Prime Minister's Office but also lowering dignity and image of India."

Singhvi said Modi resorted to "jumlebaji", "fekubaji" as he did not have answer on issues such as joblessness, destruction of economy and farm distress.

"Generally, a person who has held constitutional positions of Chief Minister and Prime Minister tends to become a statesman. However, in case of Modiji, it is regressive. The time has come for him to go," he said.

Singhvi also took a dig at the Election Commission for their "inaction" in cases of violation of Model Code of Conduct for the Lok Sabha polls by Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah.