Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said while the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has played a constructive role in binding different communities, the BJP has "specialised in creating communal strife across the country".
He was answering a question on the Bharatiya Janata Party's criticism of the visit Monday of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi to communal violence-hit Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.
"The BJP would be well served to emulate the gesture of empathy (of the prime minister and Sonia Gandhi). It has been a Congress tradition and a UPA (United Progressive Alliance) tradition to reach out to people who are in anguish, who are in misery across the length and breadth of the country," Tewari said.
"...we have tried to play a role that is constructive, always tried to harmonise relations between various communities. And the BJP role over all these years has been one in which they have specialised, rather super specialised, in creating communal strife across the length and breadth of the country."