New Delhi: Hitting out at BJP over remarks by one of its leaders that the rural job scheme had made people "impotent" and not interested to work, Congress on day sought an apology from the Opposition party saying that the comments reflected its mindset of shutting down all welfare measures.

At an AICC briefing today, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala played the video clip of a TV debate during which BJP treasurer Piyush Goyal had attacked the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act saying that all it had done was to make people "impotent" and not interested in working.

"The statement reflects the mindset of the BJP that seeks to shut down all such welfare schemes and deny crores of people access to livelihood.

"(The comments) are an insult to the entire nation. We hope the BJP leaders will apologise for it," Surjewala said.

Meanwhile, defending Goyal at a BJP briefing, party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said that the comments by the BJP treasurer had been made in a different context.

"Goyal spoke in the context of economic independence of the people. He said that schemes like MGNREGA had made people dependent and they were not looking at self-employment opportunities to improve their economic condition and become economically independent," said Trivedi.