Stung by Sonia Gandhi's [Images] criticism of L K Advani, the BJP on Friday hit back at her, saying it needs no lessons in nationalism from the Congress chief who is yet to "fully learn and appreciate" the core ethos of Indian civilisation.

The party said the Congress was "solely focussed" on deflecting attention from core national issues like price rise, food security and national security by harping on the Kandahar hijacking episode.

"Sonia would do the country a great service if she, instead of focussing her misguided ire at the Opposition, actually directs the rag-tag experiment called UPA towards issues of governance," BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

His comments were in response to Sonia's attacks on Advani for his statement that he was not aware of the decision to send his cabinet colleague Jaswant Singh on the plane with terrorists to Kandahar.

Prasad said the Congress' constant criticism about a "single painful decision" taken by the NDA government was "truly unfortunate" and claimed the attacks cannot blemish the BJP's track record in effectively crippling terrorism during the six years when it was in power.

"The dismal four-year track record of the Congress-led UPA government is evident for all of us to see. Apart from displaying a pathological fixation of mindlessly criticising the opposition, the party and UPA government have little to take credit for," he said.

He said the UPA government has been sending signals to "terrorists and their patrons abroad that under its rule, national security is a casualty before appeasement politics and initiatives against terrorists is tradable for votes".