What Modi said on Swamy episode is advisory, not action, says Congress

New Delhi: Congress on Tuesday dismissed suggestions that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had pulled up BJP MP Subramanian Swamy for attacks on RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and some top finance ministry officials, remarking "a stubborn person will never accept logic".

"Whatever the Prime Minister has said in the matter is at best an advisory and not an action. An action means dismissal, expulsion, suspension," Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad told reporters.

He then cited a Hindi saying "lato ke bhoot baton se nahi mante" meaning a "stubborn person will never accept logic".

In an interview to a news channel, Prime Minister had described as "inappropriate" the attack on Rajan.

Calling Rajan "no less patriotic", he had virtually ticked off Swamy saying, "If anybody considers himself above the system then it is wrong."

The Prime Minister's comments assume significance in the context of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and the BJP distancing themselves from Swamy's recent attacks on Rajan, CEA Arvind Subramananian and Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das.

Swamy also had made some carping comments about Jaitley without taking his name.

Azad also wondered over the Prime Minister's remarks that he was not aware of the people who were making attempts at polarisation through their controversial statements and had instead blamed the media for turning hardliners into heroes.

"Modiji claimed that he doesn't know people who make such statements. Does that mean he doesn't know BJP MP Sakshi Maharaj? Does Modi ji not know his Minister Mahesh Sharma? Does the PM not know his own MPs and ministers?"

Noting that this is called, "Pot calling the kettle black", Azad felt what Modi is basically saying is not to report these issues. "Be blind to them."

He accused the Prime Minister of doing precious little to stop the attempts at polarisation despite the issue being raised in Parliament several times.

The Congress leader mocked Modi of turning into an "old and weak lion" two years in office saying his interview showed him "defensive" for the first time and also one who is "not decisive". He said that it was a "very disappointing" interview.

He recalled that Modi in the Lok Sabha poll campaign had strode like a "lion".