New Delhi, In response to India’s crushing defeat against Australia in the ODI World Cup final, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been labeled ‘bad omens’ by many of his opponents in the past.

According to Kashmir Media Service, the former Congress president accused Modi of being a “panauti” (bad omen) that led to the team’s loss.

Rahul Gandhi, addressing the media in Hindi, accused the Prime Minister of attempting to divert attention from critical issues by engaging in discussions around “Hindu-Muslim” matters and attending cricket matches.

He claimed that the presence of the Prime Minister was a jinx, stating, “Our boys would have won the World Cup, but the panauti lost us the match.” The remarks were met with a mixed reaction from the crowd, with someone even shouting ‘panauti’ in response.

In a swift response, senior BJP leader and former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad strongly criticized Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, deeming them “shameful, condemnable, and disgraceful.”

Interestingly, in the wake of failure of the Chandrayaan mission in September 2019, the-then Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence at the ISRO headquarters on September 6 could have proved a ‘bad omen’ as the soft landing of moon lander Vikram failed.

“I don’t know, but probably the timing of his stepping in there could have brought a bad omen to ISRO scientists,” Kumaraswamy said at a press conference in Mysuru.

He went on to add that Modi came to Bengaluru on Sept 6 night to send across a message to the people of the country that he was behind the launch of Chandrayaan.