Senior Congress leader Sam Pitroda has courted controversy over his remark that “temples are not going to create jobs”, drawing fire from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Pitroda, who accompanied Rahul Gandhi during his US trip, alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is ignoring development issues and focusing on religious matters.

“We have a problem with unemployment, inflation, education and health. No one talks about these things. But everyone talks about Ram, Hanuman, and mandir. I have said that temples are not going to create jobs,” Pitroda said at an event where Rahul Gandhi was also present, Firstpost reported.

BJP leader Amit Malviya took to Twitter to attack Pitroda and said he spewed “venom on Hindus and denigrate Temples”. He also targeted Rahul Gandhi for silence and said it is an endorsement of a “Hinduphobic diatribe”.

Pitroda, the chairperson of the Indian Overseas Congress, has made some controversial remarks in the past as well. In 2019, the Congress party faced a major embarrassment when Pitroda used the words “hua toh hua (what happened, happened)” while trying to dismiss questions on the anti-Sikh riots last week. Then Congress president Rahul Gandhi called Pitroda’s remarks “absolutely wrong and said he should apologise to the nation for it.

Pitroda had also questioned the air strike after the Pulwama attack in 2019 and reportedly said that India should not have attacked Pakistan.

Earlier, the Congress leader said Indian society has been polarised in the last nine years over a period of time. On the one hand, there is Hindu, on the other hand, there is everything else, he added.