Responding to External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid's 'nursery student' jibe on their prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday said the former has revealed and exposed his and the Congress Party's frustration over Modi's growing popularity.
"They (Congress) do not understand what to do with the growing popularity of Modi. They are in the depression of being lost. That is why they are making such comments. They are drowning themselves," said BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
"What Salman Khurshid has said is rubbish," added BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.
Khurshid had earlier questioned Modi's claim of having received a clean chit in the 2002 Gujarat riot cases, and compared him to a nursery student.
Khurshid said, "I don't know of the Supreme Court giving a clean chit to Modi. A lower court has denied to issue a summons to him. It is like a nursery student who has scored good marks, and thinks of himself as the holder of a PhD."
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Last month, Khurshid had described Modi as 'impotent'. He was indirectly admonished by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who said, "I do not appreciate this kind of comment...the kind of language."
At a rally in Farrukhabad on February 25, Khurshid had stoked a controversy by calling Modi "impotent" and insisted that he did nothing wrong as there was no other appropriate word to describe him in the context of the 2002 Gujarat riots.
"Some people came, attacked and went, and you couldn't protect. Are you not a strong man?," he had asked.
"We don't accuse you of killing people... Hamara aarop hai ki tum 'napunsak'(impotent) ho. (Our accusation is that you are impotent). You couldn't stop the killers," he added.
