Rahul Gandhi practicing politics of 'spit and run', says BJP

NEW DELHI: BJP on Friday accused Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi of practising politics of "spit and run" and "crossing all limits of decency" in his attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi while blaming the main opposition party for the unproductive first week of the monsoon session.

Taking a swipe at Gandhi, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said, "The script-writer he hired after his 56-day sabbatical has failed him. He writes only two lines for the purpose of media headlines."

"It's irresponsible and immature from the leader of a national party to speak of the Prime Minister in such a language. He has crossed all limits of decency in public life. His new strategy is 'spit and run'. It won't work. People are more mature than this," he said.

Earlier, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari asked Rahul to apologise for calling external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj's alleged help to Lalit Modi for travel documents a 'criminal act' or BJP would file a criminal defamation suit against him.

BJP is particularly peeved with Gandhi over his recent jibe at Modi over the contentious land bill, saying people will reduce his 56-inch (chest) to 5.6 inches.

Putting the onus on Congress for the washout in the first week of the Parliament's budget session, Javadekar said the opposition party was not willing to listen to the government on the questions raised by it.

Congress, he said, did not expect the government to be ready for a debate when it said it was willing for a discussion. The opposition party "ran away" from discussion.

Javadekar said the government had been reaching out to the opposition to break the impasse but Congress had been unrelenting. "We are hopeful that wisdom will dawn on Congress and Parliament will resume functioning from Monday," he said.