HYDERABAD: Union Minister and senior BJP leader Prakash Javadekar on Friday downplayed the controversy over comments made by party leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on eating habits of some people, which evoked strong reactions from the opposition parties. 


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It may be recalled that Vijayvargiya, BJP's West Bengal in-charge, had stoked a controversy by saying that "strange eating habits" of some construction labourers working at his house created suspicion. He further said that he suspected those workers were residents of Bangladesh as they were eating the only poha. 


"Two days after I become suspicious, they stopped working at my house," he added in his bizarre remarks. Commenting on this, Javadekar said, ''I also eat 'Poha' aur aapko bhi khilata hun. So, this is not an issue.''


The clarification from the Union Minister came shortly after AIMIM chief and party's Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi mocked Vijayvargiya for his 'poha' remarks.


The Hyderabad AIMIM MP said that people "should not eat poha but only halwa or else they will be called Bangladeshis".


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Taking a swipe at Vijayvargiya, Owaisi tweeted that labourers should not eat poha but only halwa in order to be called Indian and "Bharat ke shehri". 


He added that if they fail to do so, they will be called 'B....", which was said in a clear reference to Bangladeshis, a term used by Vijayvargiya before.


However, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar downplayed the comments made by Kailash Vijayvargiya saying it is not an issue.


Owaisi, who is the president of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), has been at the loggerheads with BJP and has been strongly criticising the Narendra Modi government over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). His party has even planned to hold a massive meeting at Charminar on the issue and sought permission for it.