BJP tries to polarise views on Ram Mandir issue before elections: Congress

Congress has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of polarising views on the controversial Ram Mandir issue every time before elections.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday, senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram said: "This is a familiar story. Every five years before elections, the BJP tries to polarise views on Ram Mandir (issue). The Congress party's position is that the matter is before the Supreme Court. Everyone should wait until the Supreme Court decides. I don't think we should jump the gun."

Responding to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's statement where he likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "a scorpion sitting on a shivling", Chidambaram said that it is a complete "non-issue".

"Shashi Tharoor did not make that comment. Shashi Tharoor has already clarified that he was quoting an article in the magazine which was published some six years ago. It is a complete non-issue because with time - the author changes, the context changes and the word changes," he said.

"So, I think between the time the comment is made and the time it gets publicity, everything changes," Chidambaram added.

Earlier, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad lambasted Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Tharoor for his comment on Prime Minister Modi. However, Tharoor on Sunday claimed that the Union Minister was making an issue out of a six-year-old quote.

"This comment (not by me) has been in the public domain for six years. RS Prasad making an issue of a six-year-old quote shows how little the new BJP has to offer to the nation. As for media subserving the BJP's desire for "controversy", when will this "profession" develop any self-respect?" Tharoor tweeted.

He also tweeted the article that carried the comment as an excerpt, and said, "In view of the unseemly demonisation of an out of context remark today involving a scorpion metaphor, my book #TheParadoxicalPrimeMinister cites & footnotes this article - please see the last paragraph of this article."

Tharoor, while addressing a gathering on Sunday, said: "There is an extraordinarily striking metaphor expressed by an unnamed Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) source to a journalist, that, Modi is like a scorpion sitting on a Shivling, you can't remove him with your hand and you cannot hit it with a chappal either.