Mani Shankar Aiyar, Salman Khurshid have clarified in different ways: Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress today sought to defuse BJP's attack in the wake of controversial remarks by Mani Shankar Aiyar and Salman Khurshid in Pakistani media, insisting that the party line was enunciated at the AICC briefings alone.

"Aiyar and Khurshid have clarified in different ways... They have denied also. Be that as it may, the Congress view is view from this podium. Anybody else says it is individual view, personal view," party spokesman Abhishek Singhvi told reporters here.

Insisting that the democratic process has "nothing to do with foreign countries", he said that the Congress respects the verdict of the Lok Sabha elections in May 2014 as also the assembly elections in Bihar this month.

"Indian electorate is supreme. It decides who will rule them. That is the greatness of our republic. No outside power can tell us anything. Pakistan is the last country which could teach us about democracy," he remarked.

Singhvi's remarks came close on the heels of the BJP escalating its attack against Aiyar over his controversial remarks in Pakistani media, calling it "treason" and demanding an apology from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Union ministers M Venkaiah Naidu and Prakash Javadekar, who also hit out at former External Affairs Minister Khurshid for criticising the NDA government for adopting a tough stand towards Pakistan, said Congress should take strong action against the two leaders for their "seditious" and "anti- national" remarks.

"The comments made by Aiyar and Khurshid are highly objectionable and anti-national. Going to a foreign country and calling upon the people to overthrow a democratically elected prime minister is nothing but sedition.

"Congress party should condemn these remarks and take strongest possible action against these two people. They are not ordinary people to be brushed aside. They were ex-ministers and spokesmen of the Congress party. This shows the level of the frustration of the party and its leaders," Naidu said.