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Cong slams Vijayvargiya on 'poha' remark

New Delhi: The Congress on Friday demanded that BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya apologise for his "poha" remark, saying it was made deliberately to instill fears in the minds of common people and profile them on basis of food habits.

Congress leader Sushmita Dev termed Vijayvargiya's statement as irresponsible and condemnable and the BJP leadership's silence on his statement as unfortunate.

She alleged that since the BJP leadership is complicit on it so far, it creates doubts over ruling party conducting the National Population Register (NPR) exercise by profiling people on the basis of religion, community, language and now even food.

"This is the reason why we are saying that this government will use NPR for profiling people. This is the way we suspect the government conducting a NPR to do profiling on the basis of religion, community, language and now even food. It is an irresponsible statement. The country is in turmoil on many issues and this is the statement which has been deliberately made to instill fear among the common man," she told reporters.

"He should apologise to the nation and the BJP, which at the drop of a hat holds a press meet on irrelevant issues to divert the attention of the nation, should hold a press meet and apologise for this statement. It should clarify and retract this statement because this is condemnable," she said.

"It is very unfortunate that the BJP is silent on this issue, which means that he might be instructed to talk in this manner and the top leadership of the BJP is definitely complicit in this," the Congress leader said.

Dev said that the Congress has consistently been saying that the poor will suffer and this statement of Vijayvargiya further "reiterates what we are saying because he is after all pointing out a finger at the person who is a basic construction site worker".

"We condemn his statement and we reiterate our concern about the manner in which this government is likely to conduct the NPR in the country by profiling people on different basis which should not be the criteria in NPR process," she said.

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