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Launching a fresh attack on Press Council of India chairperson Markandey Katju, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday said the former Supreme Court judge was expressing "unsolicited and bizarre" opinions against non-Congress ruled states and demanded that he step down.
"Mr Katju, as chairperson of the Press Council of India, holds a statutory position. Yet, he is seemingly floating around the country like a vagabond and giving unsolicited bizarre opinions," BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters.
He alleged that Katju is biased and demanded his resignation.
"Katju prefers slurring opposition ruled governments -- whether it is Mamata Banerjee ruled West Bengal, the JDU-BJP ruled government in Bihar or the Narendra Modi government in Gujarat," Rudy said.
Rudy maintained that the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley had made an apt statement -- that Katju was carrying the brief of the Congress party -- and asked him to resign.
"Mr Modi has also supported Jaitley's statement that Katju should quit," Rudy said.
Jaitley and Katju were on Sunday locked in a bitter war of words over the latter's critical article on Modi.
Jaitley had dubbed Katju as "more Congress than the Congress" and said his attacks on non-Congress governments -- whether in West Bengal, Bihar or Gujarat -- seem more in the nature of "thanks-giving to those who provided him with a post-retirement job."
He also demanded that Katju resign from his post.
The Press Council of India chief hit back at Jaitley, accusing him of twisting facts, and asked him to quit politics.
Jaitley, in a statement, said Katju's article in a newspaper against Modi read more like a personal tirade and wondered whether he was trying to hold a brief for those who have been convicted in the 2002 Godhra train burning incident.
Katju had said that "there is still a mystery of what happened in Godhra" and he found it hard to believe "that Modi had no hand in 2002", referring to the Gujarat riots.
Katju, in turn, accused Jaitley of twisting facts.