"He is like a yogi doing his 'tapasya' with focus," he had said about Rahul Gandhi.
A day after linking the ongoing pan-India march of the Congress, the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', to the epic Ramayana, and party leader Rahul Gandhi to Lord Ram, Congress leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid today said it was a metaphor.
"Our country has a culture, a thought. We name so many children after Lord Ram. Why do we do it? We never heard any child named Rahim, but we have heard Ram. Those we expect to do good work, walk the right path and also guide others to it, we name them after those we respect and revere. You know what idioms and metaphors are," he said.
Mr Khurshid further asked when we feel indebted to someone, why do we call them 'bhagwan (god)'? "Why do we tell them that you have come to my life to rid me of my troubles, like god himself?" he said, in an attempt to explain his comments, which had drawn ridicule from the BJP.
"Try to understand the Indian civilization, and I am clarifying with what emotion and intention I said those words. Be it Lord Ram, or any other revered figure, they are not a monopoly of anyone. Nobody here can claim that they are the sole authority on Hindu religion," he added.
He had on Monday called Rahul Gandhi 'superhuman' for walking in Delhi in a t-shirt, while "we are freezing in the cold and wearing jackets".
"He is like a yogi doing his 'tapasya' with focus," he said.
"Lord Ram's 'khadau' goes very far. Sometimes when Ram ji is not able to reach, Bharat takes the 'khadau' and goes to places. Like that, we have carried the 'khadau' in Uttar Pradesh. Now that 'khadau' has reached Uttar Pradesh. Ram ji (Rahul Gandhi) will also come," he added.
Rahul Gandhi's mass outreach campaign, Bharat Jodo Yatra, reached the national capital on Saturday. The party held a mega public rally in front of the Red Fort.