5 min readNew DelhiMar 17, 2023 05:20 PM IST
First published on: Mar 17, 2023 at 05:20 PM IST
The BJP on Friday accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of becoming a “permanent part of the anti-nationalist toolkit”, using a phrase it has frequently deployed to insinuate a deep-rooted conspiracy against the nation.
In a video message, BJP president JP Nadda said, “It is unfortunate that the Congress party is indulging in anti-national activities. After being repeatedly rejected by the nation, Rahul Gandhi has now become a permanent part of this anti-nationalist toolkit.”
It most recently used “toolkit” to refer to the two-part BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots. On March 10, the Gujarat Assembly “unanimously” passed a resolution to take “strict” action against BBC for airing a “fabricated” documentary that was used as a “toolkit” to “defame” Prime Minister Narendra Modi and destabilise India. Congress MLAs were absent from the Assembly when the resolution was passed.
The word first gained currency among the BJP at the time of the year-long protests against the now-repealed farm laws. On February 15, 2021, the Delhi Police arrested Bengaluru-based climate activist Disha Ravi on the accusation of being a “key conspirator” in the dissemination of a toolkit in the form of a Google document on the agrarian protests.
The police claimed that Disha, along with Mumbai-based advocate Nikita Jacob and Maharashtra-based engineer Shantanu Muluk, were “local collaborators of the conspiracy to incite disaffection and precipitate violence” on Republic Day that year, and that “they all used social media to peddle support for secessionist Khalistan narrative in the guise of farmer protests”. The document was subsequently shared by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.
The toolkit had subsections titled “urgent action and prior actions” and a detailed section called “how you can help?” The Opposition hit out at the BJP over Ravi’s arrest, saying it was “an unprecedented attack on democracy”. The BJP responded by alleging that Ravi was a “propagandist” part of the “breaking India forces”.
Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat tweeted at the time, “If age is the criteria then Param Veer Chakra Second Lt Arun Khetarpal, martyred at 21 is who I am proud of. Not some #toolkit propagandists!”
BJP general secretary (organisation) B L Santosh said, “21-year-old… environment activist … student … Are these credentials for becoming a part of breaking India forces? How does she get access to the editing tool kit?”
A few months later — on May 19, 2021 — the BJP released what it claimed was a Congress “toolkit” for tarnishing the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Centre over the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Nadda was then the first to talk about the Congress’s “toolkit models”, alleging in a tweet that the Congress was a “master” at “dividing society and spewing venom”. He added, “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.”
The allegation was subsequently taken up by Union minister Smriti Irani, Santhosh, and spokesperson Sambit Patra, with BJP leaders sharing a document seemingly printed on the letterhead of the “AICC Research Department”.
The Congress dismissed the document — that allegedly laid out instructions on how to “destroy his (Modi’s) image and erode his popularity” and advised that a Covid-19 mutant be dubbed the “India strain” or “Modi strain” — as “forgery” and “fraud”. The party also filed a complaint with the Delhi Police, demanding an FIR against all four BJP leaders. The party said it would also write to social media platforms for action against the BJP leaders for “propagating” a” forged and fabricated letter”.
The document circulated by the BJP included instructions purportedly by the Congress asking its followers to track people seeking help and ensure they tag the party’s leaders in replies. Several BJP leaders, including ministers, attacked the Congress online using the hashtag “CongressToolKitExposed”.
Three days later, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) wrote to Twitter objecting to the platform’s decision to flag some of the posts on the alleged Congress toolkit as “manipulated media”. In a letter, the ministry asked for the tag to be removed and said the move by Twitter appears “prejudged”, “prejudiced”, and “arbitrary”. Patra’s post was among the ones that were flagged.
The BJP most recently used “toolkit” to refer to the two-part BBC documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna) 
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