Hyderabad: Late Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao’s family on Tuesday were effusive in praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for promising a memorial for the leader while criticising successive Congress governments for ignoring him after his death.

“We are happy and ever grateful to PM Narendra Modi for his decision to construct a befitting memorial in Delhi to our late father,” said Narasimha Rao’s sons P.V. Rajeshwar Rao and P.V. Prabhakar Rao.

Speaking to this newspaper about the decision of the NDA government to construct a memorial in New Delhi to his father on the banks of the River Yamuna, former MP P.V. Rajeshwar Rao said, “All non-Congress leaders like PM Narendra Modi, Telangana CM K. Chandrasekhar Rao and AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu were concerned about the insult meted out to our father’s body after his death in 2004 and had promised to give prominence to him including recommending the Bharat Ratna. At last, our father is going to get the recognition that was due.”

Mr Rao added, “In fact we had been assured by the Congress leaders who were at the helm of affairs at the time of my father’s death that they would construct a memorial in Delhi, but during the 10 years of their rule, they completely ignored their promise.”