BJP claims it found author of Congress 'toolkit'; Opposition accuses govt of 'cynical politics'

AICC research department Chairman Rajeev Gowda trashed the alleged 'toolkit' as a forgery

Controversy over the alleged Congress "toolkit" to defame Modi deepened on Wednesday with BJP claiming to have identified its author and shared tweets of those supposedly close to Rahul Gandhi having "tacitly accepted" it.

AICC research department Chairman Rajeev Gowda, who had on Tuesday lodged a police complaint against BJP chief J P Nadda and other senior leaders of the ruling party, trashing the alleged "toolkit" as a "forgery", went hammer and tongs saying "the BJP ecosystem indulges in the worst form of cynical politics.'

'Its dirty tricks dept extracted a colleague’s name from our genuine Central Vista document & attributed it to its FAKE ‘toolkit’. She deactivated her SM accounts after online harassment. Shame! Take me on, not my team!," Gowda said hours after the BJP repeatedly raised questions.

"Let’s be clear. We made a research note on Central Vista for the party. It's genuine & fact-based. I tweeted yesterday that “Covid-19 toolkit" is FORGED & is a MADE in BJP product. Patra is showing metadata/author of a real document & attributing it to a FAKE one," he said.

Patra earlier said that the alleged 'toolkit' was designed by Congress and authored by Saumya Varma, who, he said, works at the office of Congress MP MV Rajeev Gowda.

"Friends yesterday Congress wanted to know who’s the Author of the toolkit. Pls check the properties of the Paper. Author: Saumya Varma Who’s Saumya Varma ...The evidence speaks for itself: Will Sonia Gandhi & Rahul Gandhi reply?," he tweeted along with photos of Saumya with Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders.

BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya tweeted, "In another tell all development, Saumya Varma, whose name figured as the author of the Congress toolkit has deleted her Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. It is getting murkier as Congress rushes to erase digital footprint of their anti-India activities."

He said that Gowda, head of Congress’ research wing, must explain who Saumya Varma is and her role in drafting the toolkit.

"Congress denies the toolkit to be theirs. They disowned digital footprint of Saumya Varma, whose name figured as author of the toolkit but Sanjukta Basu, part of Rahul Gandhi’s SM team, openly admits that the toolkit is theirs and hails the initiative!," Malviya said tweeting a photo of Sanjukta with Rahul Gandhi in which she says "it is the birthright of a political party to run campaigns to ruin the image of the opponent. Modi is crying because Team Congress is finally doing a good job..."

National Coordinator of Congress social media Hasiba Amin, however, slammed the attempt to drag in Saumya.

The "toolkit" controversy was triggered on Tuesday as BJP's Sambit Patra mounted a massive attack on Congress accusing it of having made a detailed plan to tarnish the image of Modi by using the pandemic and roping in foreign media. Putting out screen shots of the purported document, which he called "Congress toolkit", Patra cited how Congress workers were instructed to call the mutant strain as Modi strain and how Congress allegedly asked the workers to call the Kumbh Mela as the "Super Spreader Kumbh''.

As scores of BJP leaders attacked the Congress over the issue, Congress lodged a police complaint, accusing the BJP of propagating a "fake" document and "shamelessly concocting forgeries."