New Delhi: Congress today (March 18, 2004) sought a public apology from Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for the "personal" attack made against its chief Sonia Gandhi by some senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and said, "The attack is not only directed against her but women as a whole."

"If the apology does not come, we will not rest and wherever Vajpayee and these leaders go, we will follow them and stage demonstration," senior party leaders Kapil Sibal and Jayanti Natrajan told reporters.

Asking women to come out in full force to protest the BJP leaders' utterances, Natrajan alleged these leaders, L K Advani, Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitley and Vinay Katiyar, had been attacking women as a whole and was not confined to Gandhi alone.

She also said the Congress would approach the Election Commission on this issue.

Recalling that Vajpayee had some days ago wanted the campaign to be conducted in a dignified way, Sibal said that he was doing little to rein in his own people.

Natrajan said that the "undignified" attack on Gandhi showed "anti-women" stance of BJP and its leadership.

Terming as "shameful and disgusting" the personal attack made on Gandhi, Sibal and Natrajan said, "The way they are levelling allegations against women, they (BJP leaders) are not real Hindus."

Katiyar does not even know Indian history or culture or heritage as he had wrongly quoted from Mahabharata and Helen of Troy, Sibal said, adding, "The history shows that whoever insulted women were doomed."