Congress on Friday questioned the BJP about its chief ministers' defiance of the diktat of party president Rajnath Singh to cut the sales tax on petroleum products to lessen the blow of the sharp hike to the consumer.

Expressing satisfaction over the prompt step taken by the Congress and Left-ruled states in slashing the sales tax to make the hike a little more bearable, Congress wondered as to why the states ruled by BJP and its NDA allies had declined to respond to the leadership's plea for lowering the tax.

"Though the BJP has given direction to its state governments, there is no hint that it is being complied with," Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said.

He said that states like Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh were unlikely to cut the tax. He said that the impervious attitude of the BJP state governments to a national crisis gave lie to their "India first" assertion.

"A time comes when the national interest is put ahead of other considerations but the BJP declines to do that," he said.

"Their nationalist credentials are suspect," Tewari claimed.