New Delhi: Stung by BJP chief's 'Rahul Gandhi supporting anti-nationals' remark, Congress held a press conference to counter Amit Shah but courted a huge controversy instead.

While addressing a press meet here, Congress leader Randeep Surjewala on Monday not only termed Afzal Guru as 'Ji' but also said that the 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru had attacked the 'Supreme Court'.

Surjewala was addressing the media on the ongoing issue of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) row and said that if we did not trust our constitutional process then we would not have given life sentence to Afzal Guru after exhausting all the legal provisions he had.

However, Surjewala later apologised for his remark. He also said that during the entire press conference he took Afzal Guru’s name many times but only once addressed him as ‘Ji’ which should be considered as a 'slip of tongue'.

Earlier in the day, speaking on the raging controversy for the first time, Shah asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul a host of questions and demanded that he apologise for his stand on the JNU issue, saying support to anti-national forces in the name of the Left's progressive ideology is not acceptable.

"Are you not encouraging traitors by protesting in support of these anti-nationals?", Shah wrote in a blog.

Noting that slogans like 'Pakistan zindabad', 'go India go back' and those in support of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, Kashmir's independence and India's destruction were raised in JNU, the BJP president wondered if the Congress leader had joined hands with separatists.

Rahul, later, attacked the BJP and RSS over the JNU row, saying they do not have respect for diversity of the nation's culture and wanted to control everyone's views.

Jawaharlal Nehru University students on Tuesday had organised a meet on the campus to mourn the hanging of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) co-founder Maqbool Bhat, where alleged anti-India slogans were raised.

Another commemorative meeting was held at the Press Club of India in Delhi on Wednesday where too, anti-India slogans were raised and placards were shown.