JD-U national president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan also said that though his party did not favour criticising the country on foreign soil, it felt that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was well within his rights to express his anxieties about "threats to democracy in India' during his Cambridge tour. 

"It has turned out that nothing had happened in Tamil Nadu. And just look at the people who have been booked and arrested for spreading rumours', said the JD-U chief, referring to cases being lodged against a number of BJP leaders by the DMK government in the southern state. 

"So, this is the character of the BJP. Rumour-mongering, and coercion of parties opposed to it, all for electoral gains. But it is making a mistake. People of the country are now conscious enough to see through their designs," said the JD-U president, whose party snapped ties with the saffron party less than a year ago. 

Asked about the controversy triggered by Rahul Gandhi's remarks abroad, Lalan, whose party is now aligned with the Congress, said "We believe the problems in the country are best discussed on the home soil, which offers a very large stage. We do not think one's own country should be criticised on foreign soil." -- PTI