Cong tarnishing image of India, PM Modi:BJP

New Delhi The BJP hit out at the Congress on Tuesday over an alleged toolkit of the opposition party, saying it wants to tarnish the image of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by calling the new strain of the coronavirus the "India strain" or the "Modi strain".

Citing the toolkit, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sambit Patra said according to the document, it is clear that the Congress extending help to the needy during the pandemic is "more of a public relations exercise with the help of friendly journalists and influencers than a soulful endeavour".

In accordance with the agenda of the toolkit, the Congress has instructed its social media volunteers to call the new mutant strain of Covid-19 the "Modi strain" or the "India strain", Patra claimed in a tweet. Taking on the Congress over its alleged toolkit, BJP president JP Nadda said dividing the society and "spewing venom against others. Congress is a master at this". "India is seeing Congress' antics, while the nation is fighting Covid-19.

I would urge Congress to go beyond 'Toolkit Models' and do something constructive," he said in a tweet. Echoing similar sentiments, Union minister Smriti Irani said the country is at war with the coronavirus. "I can understand the opposition would want to attack the government. But to singularly commercialise it as a political opportunity and deal in death; I never imagined Congress was capable of such a low," she wrote on Twitter. Attacking Gandhi over the toolkit, Patra alleged that the Congress leader wants to use the pandemic to destroy the image of Modi. "Congress workers instructed to call the mutant strain as Modi strain," he wrote on Twitter. The BJP spokesperson alleged that no stone has been left unturned to tarnish India's image with the help of foreign journalists.