Jul 9 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Friday demanded an apology from the ruling Congress for its "utterly irresponsible and uncivilised" comment on BJP president Nitin Gadkari.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here: "The comment of the Congress spokesperson about the president of the principal opposition party is utterly irresponsible, lacking in political courtesy and utterly uncivilised."

He was reacting to Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari's comment that Gadkari should go to a psychiatric facility for his "obnoxious" remark that the ruling party was treating parliament attack convict Afzal Guru as its "son-in-law".

"Obscenity, obnoxiousness, obtuseness should not be dignified by a response. It is very obvious that the esteemed president of the BJP has lost it completely. The BJP should take pity and deposit him in a psychiatric facility," Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said here.

Prasad said the BJP demands an apology from the Congress for making irresponsible comments about their party president.

"It is a well known fact that the mercy petition of Afzal Guru was deliberately delayed by (Shivraj Patil) the then home minister. Can we deny that the file is still with the home ministry?... Therefore I believe our president was expressing the view of the nation. The nation is pained by the government's action and that's what our president was expressing," Prasad added.

Addressing a rally in Dehradun Thursday, Gadkari had attacked the Congress over the delay in executing the death sentence of Afzal Guru.

"I want to ask Congress leaders is Afzal Guru your son-in-law... Why is he being given special treatment?" he had said. The BJP president said the Congress was a "party of people without guts" which could not fight terrorism.

Afzal Guru was awarded the death sentence for his role in the Dec 13, 2001 attack on parliament. He has filed a mercy petition with the president.