India, April 7 -- Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said on Tuesday that the quality of political discourse is going down, adding that standards should not be lowered to that of those who use bad language.

Tharoor was responding to a question on Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge's recent remark on people of Gujarat that has drawn criticism from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

At an election rally in Kerala's Idukki district on Sunday, Kharge had said the people of the state were "educated and clever" and cannot be misled, unlike those who were "illiterate" in Gujarat and some other places.

"Do they agree with this statement? If Rahul Gandhi has any sense, he should distance himself from this remark, condemn it, and demand an apology...