Congress leaders like Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were assassinated for the "political decisions they took", suggested the Bharatiya Janata Party's IT cell head Amit Malviya during a television news debate.
He made the remark in the context of the recent assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump during an election rally in Pennsylvania.
Malviya drew parallels between the language Democrats use against Trump with that of the grand old party's against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"Before the Congress claims that their own leaders got assassinated, I want to remind them that they were assassinated for the political decisions that they took,” he said.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh termed Malviya's statement to be "atrocious, obnoxious and disgraceful". "If the self-anointed non-biological PM has any shred of decency he should sack this guy right away," he added in his X post.
Senior Congress leader Pawan Khera came down heavily on Malviya and questioned if Modi endorsed this opinion of the BJP IT Cell head.
"According to this BJP motormouth, Mahatma Gandhi, Indira ji, Rajiv ji, Sardar Beant Singh and the entire Congress leadership of Chhattisgarh deserved to be assassinated for the political decisions they took," Khera said in a post on X.
He said that the only political decisions taken by the Congress "martyrs" was to live and die for the nation. "Buffoons of BJP will never understand that sentiment. Do we need more proof of the anti-national mindset of the BJP?" Khera asked.
Earlier, Malviya had also taken a swipe at Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha -- Rahul Gandhi -- over his post expressing concern for Trump after his assassination attempt.
"These are insincere words. Third Time Fail Rahul Gandhi has often encouraged and justified violence against Prime Minister Modi, who he has lost election to, several times now," Malviya said in his X post.
The BJP leader said that how can the nation ever forget how Punjab Police, under Congress' regime, "deliberately compromised the PM's security, when his convoy was left stranded on a flyover".
Khera had hit back at Malviya, saying that cheap politics should not be played over the security matters of leaders.
"The Congress party lost Mahatma ji to Right Wing terrorists. We lost two prime ministers at the hands of terrorists. We lost our entire Chhattisgarh leadership to Left Wing terrorists, under the watch of the BJP government," Khera had said.
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