Soniaji please don't preach us 'rajdharma': Ravi Shankar Prasad

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday lashed out at Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi and her party leaders on Friday, asking them not to preach "raj dharma" to the central government.

"Manmohan Singh had demanded citizenship rights for people displaced due to religion. Ashok Gehlot had written letters to Shivraj Patil and even Advaniji, both the then home ministers, that citizenship should be given to minorities from other countries. Then what kind of raj dharma is this that you changed your stance," Prasad said at a press conference here.

"The CAA was formed using constitutional ways and following the rules laid down by it. The CAA was passed in both the houses after a lot of deliberations, the whole country saw it. You had also supported it in the past and then you gave the statement 'is paar ya us paar' at your rally in Ramleela Maidan. Why did you provoke people (against the CAA)," he said.

The senior BJP leader further attacked the Congress over its stance on the National Population Register (NPR) exercise too. "Congress brought a notification for NPR on March 15, 2010. Chidambaram was the Home Minister, Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi was the UPA chairperson then. You started this exercise and it was good for the country that a register should be made of the facilities available to people. I have the records of the Lok Sabha proceedings of that time," he said.

"When you do something it is fine, but you provoke people when we try to do the same thing. What kind of raj dharma is this Soniaji?" Prasad asked.

Earlier on Thursday, Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh along with other party leaders had met President Ram Nath Kovind in Delhi and sought the removal of Home Minister Amit Shah over Delhi violence, alleging that he "abdicated his duty" and "allowed the situation to escalate through inaction".

The party leaders urged the President to use his powers to ask the central government to protect "raj dharma" so that people were assured of peace, tranquillity and justice.

Further, Prasad upon being asked about the Party's stand on statements made by its leaders Anurag Thakur, Parvesh Verma and Kapil Mishra said, "We have made our position very clear, we do not approve these statements.