The BJP's Amit Malviya tweeted an excerpt from a 1984 speech by Rajiv Gandhi (File)
The BJP has lashed out at the Congress and the late former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, calling him "the father of lynching" after his son, MP Rahul Gandhi, attacked the party over recent mob killings.
BJP IT wing head Amit Malviya accused the Congress of justifying the "blood-curdling genocide" of Sikhs after Indira Gandhi's assassination. He posted the 'jab bhi bada ped girta hain, dharti hilti hain', or 'when a big tree falls, the earth shakes', excerpt from a speech by Rajiv Gandhi that year.
"Meet Rajiv Gandhi... father of mob lynching, justifying blood-curdling genocide of Sikhs," he wrote.
Malviya also posted about riots that took place between 1969 and 1993, under Congress rule.
"Ahmedabad (1969), Jalgaon (1970), Moradabad (1980), Nellie (1983), Bhiwandi (1984), Delhi (1984), Ahmedabad (1985), Bhagalpur (1989), Hyderabad (1990), Kanpur (1992), Mumbai (1993) ..."
"This is just a small list in which more than 100 died under Nehru-Gandhi parivar's watch," he wrote.
Earlier Union Minister Ashwini Choubey also referred to the "hundreds of Sikhs" killed during the 1984 riots and pointed out that some Congress leaders had been accused in several cases.
"Mobs killed Sikhs by burning tires around their neck. Wasn't it lynching?" he was quoted by PTI.
The horrid tweets were in response to Rahul Gandhi tweeting: "Before 2014, the word 'lynching' was practically unheard of. #ThankYouModiJi."
Mr Gandhi was tweeting in the context of vigilante killings this week over alleged instances of religious sacrilege in Congress-ruled and poll-bound Punjab.
The first killing was at the Golden Temple - a man in his early 20s jumped into the enclosure where the Granth Sahib is kept. He was seen picking up a golden sword as priests rushed to overpower him.
He was beaten to death.
Less than 24 hours later, in Kapurthala, a man was brutally assaulted after villagers claimed to have caught him trying to remove the Nishan Sahib (the Sikh flag); he was initially taken into police custody but savage scenes ensued after the mob fought with the cops and attacked the man with sticks.
The police later took him to a hospital where he was declared dead
With input from PTI