Watch your words: BJP to MPs

Lawmakers told to avoid controversial statements by party seniors, who say intolerance debate is orchestrated and stage-managed to defame the Modi government

NEW DELHI: The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership on Tuesday told its MPs that the raging intolerance debate was orchestrated and stage managed to defame the Modi government and asked them to avoid making controversial statements that give ammunition to the opposition.

At the weekly meeting of the BJP parliamentary party, parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu also took a veiled dig at actor Aamir Khan for his recent remarks and said the thought of leaving the country under perceived lack of security and justice spoke poorly of the person’s thought process.

He said the BJP’s political and ideological opponents have joined hands to deflect attention from the achievements of the government.

PM Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and party veteran LK Advani did not attend the meeting for various reasons.

Briefing party MPs, Naidu said the intolerance allegations were to serve political interests and would badly affect India’s interests abroad.

He said the killing of innocents in the name of religion or caste was a blot on society and has to be condemned fiercely. Politicising such murders is also a crime and giving the crime a communal colour is a sin, he added.

Naidu said the entire country has seen the Indian leaders (Congress) on Pakistan TV asking Pakistan leaders to overthrow the popularly-elected Indian government

Finance minister Arun Jaitley told MPs not to get disheartened with the outcome of the assembly election in Bihar and highlighted how the BJP has performed well in municipal elections in different pockets of the country. He was also hopeful that the GST Bill would see the light of the day soon.