Modi's ministers take on Cong for anti-PM remark

Attack is seen as a bid to shift focus from intolerance debate

Bracing up for Parliament's winter session, two BJP ministers on Wednesday targetted Congress leaders Mani Shankar Aiyar and Salman Khurshid for their criticism of Prime Minister  Narendra Modi in Pakistan, dubbing them “anti-national”.

The latest attack is seen as a bid to reverse arm the ruling party on a possible intolerance debate that both the Houses are expected to witness.

A day after the BJP held a press conference to attack Congress leaders Aiyar and Khurshid, Union ministers M Venkaiah Naidu and Prakash Javadekar condemned their remarks, terming it “objectionable” and "unacceptable”.   

“Congress should condemn their remarks and take strongest possible action against them,” Naidu, Union Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs, told reporters.

"It is nothing but sedition," Naidu said.

Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters at BJP headquarters here that the Opposition may “disagree with us here, but going on foreign soil and criticising us is unacceptable.”

The Congress has already distanced itself from the remarks of Aiyar and Khurshid saying that the party does not endorse them.

Though the battle of sound bytes has become sluggish post Bihar Assembly polls, it is not over. Joining the hunt to remain relevant, Congress leader Shakeel Ahmad on Wednesday stated that Modi government would have had a “different narrative altogether” had fugitive dons Chhota Rajan and Anup Chetia, deported back to the  country, been Muslims.

"Thankfully, Chhota Rajan and (extradited ULFA leader) Anup Chetia are not Muslims. Had they been Muslims, (Narendra) Modi government would have a different narrative altogether," Ahmad tweeted.

The comment drew sharp reactions from the BJP with Javadekar giving it back by saying that "bringing religion into everything, as Shakeel Ahmad did, is the policy of the Congress. I always say the Congress is the most communal party in the country".

When the NDA allies meet a day before Winter Session starts on November 26, one of the topics of discussion would be how to handle the intolerance debate which many opposition leaders have hinted at raising in Parliament.