Rahul Gandhi targets Modi over mob lynching; BJP calls Rajiv Gandhi 'father of mob lynching'

Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said the word lynching was practically unheard of before 2014 when the BJP came to power and mocked the Prime Minister with a "Thank you Modiji" even as the BJP hit back saying the Congress leader's father and former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was the "father of mob lynching".

"Before 2014, the word 'lynching' was practically unheard of. #ThankYouModiJi," Rahul tweeted.

The BJP hit back at the Congress, saying Rahul's father Rajiv Gandhi, who was a former Prime Minister had justified the anti-Sikh riots.

BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya tweeted with a short clip of Rajiv's speech, "meet Rajiv Gandhi, father of mob lynching, justifying blood curdling genocide of Sikhs. Congress took to streets, raised slogans like 'khoon ka badla khoon se lenge', raped women, wrapped burning tyres around necks of Sikh men while dogs gorged on charred bodies dumped in drains."

Malviya also posted about various riots that happened under the Congress rule between 1969 and 1993.

Positing a video, BJP national spokesperson R P Singh tweeted, "Rahul Gandhi forgets that his father Rajiv Gandhi patronage mob lynching of more than 3000 Sikhs by Congress MP and workers."

Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey told reporters that hundreds of Sikhs were killed in the 1984 riots.

"Mobs killed Sikhs by burning tyres around their neck. Wasn't it lynching?" he said.

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