The Congress party on Wednesday criticised Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for "selectively" raising divisive issues like the Godhra carnage against a particular community.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi expressed surprise that the prime minister maintained a "stoic silence" despite Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia's repeated calls for a Hindu Rashtra.

Reacting to Vajpayee's observations at the BJP parliamentary party meeting on Tuesday that the Muslim community had not condemned the Godhra carnage "strongly enough", Singhvi said, "It would be wrong to selectively choose and pass comments on the entire community."

"Crimes are committed by individuals and not by communities and therefore accusing or singling out a particular community collectively would not be in the interest of the secular democracy," he said.

Singhvi, however, expressed happiness at the trial in the Parliament attack case being completed within one year.

Saying that the rule of law had prevailed, Singhvi said, "It was a national issue where the judicial verdict has been announced based on facts and one should therefore be happy that the guilty have been convicted."