The Congress and the BJP today traded charges over Rahul Gandhi's speech in Germany, where he cited the creation of Islamic State terrorist group to warn against a similar situation at home if people are excluded from the development process.
The two parties also hit out at each other over Gandhi claiming that incidents of lynching in India were a result of the anger emanating from joblessness and "destruction" of small businesses due to demonetization and "poorly implemented" GST by the ruling BJP.
The BJP accused Gandhi of "belittling and insulting" India in his address in Hamburg yesterday, alleging that the Congress chief tried to justify terrorism and "lied through his teeth" to criticise the Narendra Modi government.
The ruling party demanded that Gandhi apologise for his remarks.
"Rahul Gandhi left no opportunity to belittle India and present it in a bad light. His speech was full of lies and deception and its sole aim was to insult India... He should apologise," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said.
Taking a dig at Gandhi, he said "Rahul Gandhi has behaved like Rahul Gandhi and expecting any maturity from him is a futile exercise."
Gandhi tried to justify terrorism and a terror outfit like IS, Patra said, adding, "There cannot be anything more frightening and worrying."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content