Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Monday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his "shahi parivar" dig at the Congress and cited the example of former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, asserting that the nation saw them "bleed" for India.

In a tweet, Sibal said, "PM said: Congress Shahi Parivar wants Karnataka to 'secede' from India. But Modiji: The nation saw them 'bleed' for India – Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi." "Is the NCERT going to efface those facts from textbooks?" he said.

Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were both assassinated in 1984 and 1991 respectively.

Sibal, who was a Union minister during UPA 1 and 2, quit the Congress May last year and was elected to the Rajya Sabha as an Independent member with the Samajwadi Party's support.

He recently floated a non-electoral platform 'Insaaf' aimed at fighting injustice.

Addressing a public meeting in Karnataka on Sunday, Modi said that in this Karnataka election, Congress' 'shahi parivar' (royal family) has gone a step ahead by "breaking all the limits and crushing the feelings of the country". "Not only Karnataka, I want to tell this to the entire country with a lot of pain that in this election Congress' royal family yesterday came to Karnataka and said they want to protect the sovereignty of Karnataka," the prime minister said.

"Karnataka's sovereignty, you know what is the meaning of it? They have sat in Parliament for so many years, they have taken oath on India's Constitution, and they say this. When a country becomes independent, only then that country is called a sovereign nation. The meaning of what Congress is saying is that the Congress believes that Karnataka is separate from India," Modi had said.

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