The Congress on Monday hit out at the BJP over the alleged abusive remarks against Rahul Gandhi made by the saffron party's Himachal Pradesh unit chief, alleging it is the culture of the ruling party to do so and the prime minister is silent over it.
Congress leader Kapil Sibal claimed that one cannot expect anything better from the BJP as it is their culture to abuse, started by Prime Minister Narendra Modi before the 2014 elections.
"They have a culture of abusing... which the prime minister started. This is their culture," he told reporters.
"We cannot expect anything else from the BJP. The prime minister is still silent on this. Their leader or the president of a state unit has made an abusive remark which I cannot even publicly utter, but the prime minister is silent," Sibal said.
To a question on Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan's derogatory comments against Jaya Prada, he said, "I believe a complaint is being filed or has been filed in the poll panel. It is the Election Commission's responsibility to take whatever action it wishes to take."
On whether candidates making objectionable comments should be barred from contesting polls, Sibal said, "That is the responsibility of an authority under the Constitution and that authority has the freedom to take whatever action it wishes to take. We should expect that authority to take action in the context of the alleged statement."
Himachal Congress chief spokesperson Naresh Chauhan had Sunday accused the BJP's state unit chief Satpal Singh Satti of making a derogatory comment against Rahul Gandhi and sought his apology for it.
Satti, however, refused to apologise for the alleged comment saying he was merely reading a message shared widely on social media and asserted that he had asked party workers not to forward such texts.
He said rather the Congress president should apologise for calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a thief.
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