New Delhi: Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday claimed the perception about "rising intolerance" in the country was being manufactured by "certain sections that are against PM Narendra Modi" and hit out at the Congress for taking the issue up with President Pranab Mukherjee amid suggestions that the issue may rock the upcoming winter session of parliament.

"They are meeting the president to talk about rising intolerance. The Congress talking about intolerance is the joke of the century. It is like the devil quoting the scriptures," Naidu told, claiming the Congress was not reconciled to being in the opposition and was "intolerant to the people's mandate" that chose Modi as the prime minister.

The statement comes in the wake of criticism from a cross section, prominently global credit agency Moody's, and expression of concern by top business leaders like Narayan Murthy and Kiran Majumdar Shaw as well as Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan.

When asked about concerns business leaders expressed last week over the vitiated atmosphere, Naidu said: "That's not the words and phraseology they used. Some of them are misleading; others are misread."

He also cited "atrocities" committed in Congress ruled-states and in states ruled by "Congress-friendly parties".

"The Dadri incident happened in Uttar Pradesh where the Samajwadi Party is in power and friendly to Congress. M.M. Kalburgi's killing happened in Karnataka that is Congress-ruled, rationalist Narendra Dabholkar was killed in Maharashtra in August 2013 when the Congress was in power in the state. These incidents are primarily being quoted to justify the sense of outrage," he said.

Hitting out at writers, artistes and other intellectuals protesting the sudden rise in communal attacks in the country, Naidu asked where these "conscience-keepers" were when genocide was committed against the Sikhs after Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984.

"Conscience keepers were silent during the Emergency, when judges were superseded, when fundamental rights were violated, when the constitution was amended to favour one individual and when thousands were sterilized forcibly and MPs were jailed," he said.

Source: IANS