The Congress on Friday sought to the blame the BJP for lowering public discourse in the country and said the onus of maintaining civilised debate lies with the ruling party.

The party's reaction came following criticism of remarks by its leader Raj Babbar who had compared the Rupee's falling value against the US dollar with the age of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's mother.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari alleged that a spate of "offensive" statements against former and current Congress presidents had emanated from the BJP leaders.

"The statements which have emanated from the Prime Minister and downwards. Personal, offensive, salacious statements against the former Congress president, the current Congress president. It assaults me to repeat those statements but people who have made those statements, they have been rewarded with Rajya Sabha (nomination)," he told reporters at the party office here.

He said that Congress believes that the public discourse should be civilised but the ruling party has a bigger role to play in it

"We have always believed and we continue to believe that we must keep the public discourse civilised. But, the responsibility of keeping the public discourse civilised lies, in addition to the opposition, principally on the ruling party that is the BJP," Tewari told reporters at the party office here," he said.

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