A still taken from the BJP's film "Nafrat Ke Saudagar"
On a day when a
video of a Congress candidate threatening to "chop Modi into pieces" seeded a new political controversy, the BJP released a new four-minute film titled "Nafrat ke Saudagar" or "Merchants of Hatred."
The name references Sonia Gandhi's controversial descriptor of
Narendra Modi as "maut ke saudagar" or "Merchant of Death" in the campaign for the state election in Gujarat in 2007.
The new film melds comments made by various Congress leaders over the last few months, all targeting Mr Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate. Included, Imran Masood, the Congress candidate from Saharanpur in West Uttar Pradesh, filmed declaring that he will kill Mr Modi. (
Read: Will kill Modi, says Congressman in hate speech)
A criminal case has been registered against Mr Masood, who has apologised for his hate speech.
"This is not an isolated case of an unacceptable attack on Narendra Modi... abuse on Modi has now graduated to intimidation," blogged BJP leader Arun Jaitley.
The BJP says the lengthy line-up of unacceptable attacks on its presumptive prime minister includes union minister Salman Khurshid labelling him as "impotent" for failing to check the communal riots of Gujarat in 2002 during Mr Modi's first term as chief minister. (
Read: Salman Khurshid calls Narendra Modi 'impotent', says 'incompetent' too soft)
At a rally in February, Mrs Gandhi accused the BJP and Mr Modi of sowing "the seeds of poison" (zeher ki kheti) by inciting communal tension. (
Read: BJP sowing seeds of poison in its hunger for power, says Sonia Gandhi)
For his part, Mr Modi refers to Mrs Gandhi's 43-year-old son,
Rahul Gandhi, with the derogatory "shehzada" (prince) to underscore the allegation that the Congress is a dynastic party and that Mr Gandhi's ascension to top spot is based solely on his famous surname.
Yesterday, the
BJP released a film called AK-49 which sought to discredit Arvind Kejriwal, who served 49 days as Delhi's chief minister and is running against Mr Modi in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.