The BJP on Sunday responded to demands from various quarters, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, to declare the devastating Wayanad landslides a national disaster, saying that such a concept doesn't exist under Central government guidelines, a policy unchanged since the UPA government's tenure. Senior party leader V Muraleedharan posted on his Facebook page a 2013 Parliament document in which then Minister of State for Home, Mullappally Ramachandran, stated that "there is no provision to declare a natural disaster as a national disaster." "The concept of a 'national disaster' does not exist under the Central government's guidelines, a fact that has been the case since the UPA government's tenure. This was explicitly stated by the then Union Home Minister, Mullappally Ramachandran, in a response to a question in the Lok Sabha on August 6, 2013," said Muraleedharan, who is also a former Union Minister. "While there is no official designation of 'national disaster', each disaster