New Delhi

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday took a swipe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's recent criticism of the government during his US visit and said arguments in a democracy are not the problem but that when leaders go outside India and invite people from outside to come and interfere, it becomes the problem.

"In any democracy, there will be arguments. There will be differences, there will be diversity and opinions. And it should be there, there is nothing wrong with it. It is concerning, when they take India's problem out in the world and then invite people from outside to come and interfere," Jaishankar said at Aryabhatta College without taking Rahul Gandhi's name.

"If you say that India has problems and great concerns then the world must do something about it, this has big implications and that is not good for the country," he added.

During a six-day, three-city tour of the United States, Rahul Gandhi criticised the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"The central architect of modern India, Mahatma Gandhi, was an NRI. The foundation for India's freedom movement was laid in South Africa...Nehru, BR Ambedkar, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, all were NRIs and had an open mind about the outside world," he said.

His remark assumes significance as the BJP, which holds the reins of administration at the Centre, has often accused him of sullying India's image on foreign soil.

The saffron party has also alleged a larger global narrative to defame India.

Continuing with his offensive against the saffron party, the Congress leader said the country faces a battle between two ideologies - one espoused by the Congress and the other by the BJP and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

"There is a fight between two ideologies in India - one that we (Congress) represent and another that is espoused by the BJP and the RSS," the Congress leader claimed.

Further, he added that the principles and ideology that Congress holds dear are the same as that of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

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He claimed that the ideas espoused and propagated by the BJP and RSS were that of Nathuram Godse, a right-wing leader who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi.