What is 'Congress toolkit' controversy: All you need to know

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the Congress party of creating a 'toolkit' that aims to tarnish the image of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by calling the new strain of coronavirus as"India strain" or the "Modi strain".
Meanwhile, Congress has denied making any such toolkit and accused the BJP of creating a 'fake toolkit'. The party said that its research wing made a toolkit on the Central Vista Project which the BJP is wrongly using for propaganda.
On Wednesday, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said that toolkit properties reveal that it was created by a person who works for Congress leader Rajeev Gowda, in charge of Congress party's Research Wing.

However, Gowda said that Patra was sharing metadata of a real toolkit and using it as evidence for a fake document.


How did it start?
The controversy started on May 18 after some BJP leaders shared screenshots of a toolkit on Twitter allegedly created by a research cell of the Congress party led by Rajeev Gowda.



Congress files FIR against BJP president
The Congress then accused the BJP of propagating a "fake toolkit" to defame it and said it would lodge a police complaint against the ruling party chief JP Nadda and its spokesperson Sambit Patra.
The opposition party alleged on its Twitter handle that instead of helping people during the Covid-19 pandemic, the BJP is stooping to low-level politics.

Several Congress leaders denied BJP's allegations and accused the ruling party of indulging in 'low politics' at a time of crisis.



The party's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said, "Soon after the BJP forged the 'fake toolkit', all its 'fake devotees' and 'friends in the media' came out to set the agenda."
"We are going to file a case against BJP president JP Nadda and his spokespersons, but the truth about their misdeeds will not be left hidden," he said.