Congress party general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi holds another press conference minutes after party spokesperson Ajay Maken slammed him for praising Narendra Modi in conversation to Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt last evening.

Dwivedi told reporters that he was misquoted, a reiteration of his statement issued last evening, after Rediff.com posted the story.

Today, Dwivedi once again said he never praised Modi and blamed the misquote to translation errors. He said he had spoken in Hindi, but the report was published in English, alluding to a loss in translation.

He also said the Congress has always represented Indianness. "I never said Narendra Modi epitomises Indianness. I don't need to learn about the culture of this country from anyone. I don't need lessons on Bhartiyata. I don't want to get into such controversies," he said.

While speaking to Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com yesterday, Dwivedi had said,  "In essence, without spelling out further, in a way this is a victory of Indian-ness (kul milakar bina kahe bole ek tarah se yeh (Modi's ascension to power) Bhartiyata ki jeet hai)."

Read the Rediff.com report that has left Dwivedi hot under the collar.