Modi insulting democracy by seeing Indians in terms of communities: Cong

The Congress on Monday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of insulting democracy by trying to segment Indians in terms of castes and communities.

Party spokesperson Manish Tewari said it was unfortunate that Modi saw Indians in terms of their communities as he stated that the Congress was scared to field its leaders from constituencies dominated by the majority community voters.

"It is unfortunate that the prime minister of India has spoken such words. Unlike the PM of India, who sees the citizens of the country in terms of their communities and not as citizens of India, the Congress sees each and every of the 135 crore citizens as Indians.

"....By trying to segment the Indian democracy in terms of castes and communities, the prime minister has insulted the democracy that we are," he told reporters here.

Tewari said when the country adopted the Constitution in 1950 and the people of India gave to themselves universal adult suffrage, it meant that "irrespective of which caste, community, region, religion you come from, you have an equal right to vote".

He also hit out at Modi and termed his comment that the Congress had coined the phrase "Hindu terror" as "lies".

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi is clearly speaking a lie. Hindu terrorism was defined by his ministerial colleague, who was then a home secretary. This definition was given by him. As far as the Congress is concerned, it always believes that terrorism does not have any religion or caste and it needs to be fought.

"It is unfortunate that the prime minister is trying to speak a lie to deflect the attention from his own failures. He should talk to his colleague and he would know who had defined Hindu terrorism," Tewari said.

He added that Gandhi contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from a second seat -- Wayanad in Kerala -- was in keeping with the tradition of top Congress leaders contesting from south India.

"What stops the prime minister of India, if he cares for that India which is in the south of the Vindhyas, from contesting a seat in south India? We have not stopped him," the Congress leader said.

To a question on whether the Congress would file a complaint with the Election Commission over Modi's remarks, he said, "We will examine the PM's speech and after that, take appropriate action."