BJP asks MPs to avoid provocative remarks

Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday advised BJP MPs to desist from making statements which can cause controversies, saying they divert the attention from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development agenda.

"We should be careful with words and should steer clear from controversies," Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi quoted Naidu, the parliamentary affairs minister, as saying during BJP's parliamentary party meeting held on Tuesday.

In the meeting attended by Bharatiya Janata party president Amit Shah, union ministers and the party MPs, Naidu also called upon party MPs not to fall prey to the tactics of Opposition by getting provoked.

"They (MPs) were told not to make provocative statements as it goes against Prime Minister Narendra Modi's developmental agenda...Stay alert about the game plan of the Opposition and expose the disinformation campaign unleashed by opponents," Naidu said at the meet.

Stating that killing of innocents in the name of religion or caste is a blot on society and has to be condemned fiercely, Naidu said: "Politicizing such murders is also a crime and giving the crime, communal colour is a sin."

Naidu also accused the Opposition of defaming the country by joining hands despite ideological and political differences.

"Our ideological and political opponents have joined together to defame country and democratically elected BJP government and also popular Prime Minister Modi. These people are not able to digest the emergence of BJP as ruling party and Modi emerging as a leader in the world community taking India's pride high," Naidu said.

The minister accused the Opposition, especially the Congress of cleverly manipulating isolated incidents into incidents of intolerance, Naqvi said.

Naqvi said the Congress party's outcry on intolerance in the country is for political gains.

"The government is discussing the issue as its attitude is tolerant and is always open to discuss any issue. The opposition is not able to digest the success of the Modi government," he said.

Naqvi also claimed that communal incidents have come down in the country in the recent weeks.

The BJP parliamentary party, Naqvi said, also discussed Modi's meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill, pending clearance in parliament.