Kapil Sibal said the BJP does not know how to govern but knows how to attack and use harsh words (File)
Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Tuesday hit back at Union minister Prakash Javadekar for his attack on Rahul Gandhi and said the environment minister should stop polluting the country's politics with his harsh words and instead focus on better governance.
Mr Sibal said the BJP does not know how to govern but knows how to attack and use harsh words.
"Mr Javadekar, why are you causing pollution in the country's politics. Being the environment minister, you should be stopping pollution, but in each statement you are using harsh words. Instead of criticising Rahul ji, you should tackle the challenges the country is facing currently in the times of the (coronavirus) pandemic," Mr Sibal said in a video message.
About the Shaheen Bagh protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, Mr Sibal said, "You talked about Shaheen Bagh where there were reports of police, which is under your government, breaking CCTV cameras."
He said there were petitions before the high court that claimed investigation into the Delhi riots was not done properly and added it would be better if Javadekar didn't speak about these things.
"As far as China is concerned, I suggest that you tell the truth and reality to the country. The prime minister said that the pandemic would be over in 21 days like the Mahabharata ended in 18 days. But, it did not and the 21 days are yet not over. Instead of speaking about other things, you should focus more on the problems before the country," the former Union minister said.
On China, Mr Sibal said Chinese President Xi Jinping is saying that they have not occupied any Indian land and the prime minister is saying the same on June 19 in an all-party meeting.
"But, your foreign and defence ministers are negating this and saying something else. The problem is that in your government we do not know who is telling the truth. But, you should at least tell the truth to the country," he said.
The Congress leader told Mr Javadekar that he was aware about the state of Indian economy and should focus on it instead.
He said everyone wants the pandemic to end and it is good that work in this direction is underway but the government should have taken a decision to stop all flights in February, which it did not take.
"The problem is that you actually do not know how to govern. You only know how to attack and use such words which do not behove either you or your government," Mr Sibal said.
Earlier, while taking a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his tweets attacking the central government, Mr Javadekar said the Congress will become a "party of tweets" as it is doing no work among people and is "losing" one leader after another.
Hitting back at Mr Gandhi, he said the anti-CAA Shaheen Bagh protests and Delhi riots were the Congress's "achievements" in February followed by desertion of Jyotiraditya Scindia and loss of power in Madhya Pradesh in March, and "incitement" of migrants in April.
Mr Javadekar said May marked the sixth anniversary of the Congress''s loss of power at the Centre while the party "advocated" for China in June and then it was "finished" in Rajasthan in July.
"Rahul Gandhi is tweeting on a daily basis. It seems the Congress will become a party of tweets as they are doing no work among the people and losing one leader after another. A frustrated and depressed party is trying to launch all sorts of attacks on the government," Mr Javadekar told reporters.
Taking a dig at the Modi government, Mr Gandhi had earlier listed the alleged attempt to topple his party's government in Rajasthan and the "Namaste Trump" event as among the Centre's "achievements" in the COVID-19 era.
"Achievements of the government in the COVID-era: February -- Namaste Trump, March -- toppling the government in Madhya Pradesh, April -- making people light candles, May -- government''s sixth anniversary, June -- Bihar virtual rally, July -- Attempt to topple the government in Rajasthan," Mr Gandhi said in a tweet.
Hitting back, Mr Javadekar said, "People are standing with PM Modi. The Congress has become helpless," he said.