BJP clawing on Rahul for something he never said: Shashi Tharoor

New Delhi: On the BJP's attacks on Rahul Gandhi's statements in the UK, Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said on Friday that BJP is clawing on Rahul for something that he had never said, NDTV reported.

Tharoor said that Rahul had at no point asked foreign countries to intervene in India's democracy, nor was there anything remotely antinational in his comments.

He wondered whether this was the most important problem in hand for the parliament. He demanded to move on, amid the UK remarks halted the daily business of the parliament during the first five days of the second half of the budget session.

He said that there is a need for Rahul to apologise as the BJP demands. "I think that is the amazing thing about them. The BJP is brilliant, I must say, at politics, and one of the things they have done is that they have blamed him (Rahul Gandhi) for something he has not said and then managed to stick that charge on his neck and demand that he apologises for something he has not said," he said.

"What he said was explicit. He said, 'this is our problem, it is an Indian problem, and Indians will solve it, but you should be aware because Indian democracy is a global public good'. I see nothing there to apologise for," Mr Tharoor said.

According to him, it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the one who has to apologise for talking about domestic politics in a foreign country. Modi had said during his many foreign tours that nothing happened in India during the 65 years after independence, and the people were ashamed to show their faces abroad before he came to power in 2014.

"I think when he (PM Modi) apologises for statements like that, then all of us can apologise for saying the opposite abroad. I think this is the level of political discourse we ought to grow out of," he said.