Union minister Prakash Javadekar Sunday said Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's remark on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Shiv Linga reflected the party's mentality which had become evident when former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi dubbed the opposition a "scorpion" in 1984 polls.
He also accused the Congress of "indirectly supporting" Maoists and said the BJP governments at the Centre and in Chhattisgarh, where elections would be held next month, were determined to finish the Naxal menace in the coming years.
No Congress leader was available for comments.
"When Chhattisgarh was formed and the Congress was in power in the state, Naxalism was at its peak. Now it has come down to one third of the total area which was in control of Naxalites earlier," the human resource development minister said in a press conference here.
Javadekar criticised Tharoor for his reported remark Saturday in which he claimed that an unnamed RSS source had told a journalist that "Prime Minister Modi was like a scorpion sitting on a Shiv Linga who cannot be removed by hand or hit with a chappal (slipper)".
When asked about the remark, Javadekar said, "The Congress is wondering on how to take on Modi at the political level and therefore it has resorted to abusing. Rahul baba keeps on abusing daily. People will do only those things which they know. Shashi Tharoor is a bit sophisticated but he has also come down to the 'bichhu' remark."
When asked if Ram Mandir will be the BJP's agenda for Lok Sabha elections in 2019, Javdekar said, "Ram Mandir had never been an agenda of our politics or election but the temple should be built in Ramjanmabhoomi because people of the country want it. This is a national demand and sentiments of people are attached with it. This is a matter of faith of people and we never do politics over it."
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