Shimla, March 28 -- The Revenue, Horticulture and Tribal Development Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Jagat Singh Negi on Saturday strongly criticized Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over their remarks terming a recent incident near places of worship as an "intelligence failure," calling the claim "completely baseless and misleading."

Speaking to ANI, Negi said the BJP is exploiting issues in the name of religion.

"This has gone too far for the BJP. How much will they exploit issues in the name of religion? This is not an intelligence failure of the system, but rather a failure of the BJP's own thinking," he said.

He asserted that unnecessarily sensationalising such matters is wrong and does not co...