Union Minister Smriti Irani and BJP MPs Manoj Tiwari and Ravi Kishan found themselves being goaded on social media on Friday as members of their party went after actor Deepika Padukone for wearing an orange swimsuit in a music video for the movie 'Pathaan'.
Ms Irani, who was a popular TV star before joining the BJP, was reminded of her modelling days when she appeared in the 1998 edition of the Miss India beauty pageant wearing a swimsuit of a similar hue.
Mr Tiwari and Mr Kishan - both Bhojpuri movie stars who joined politics - were needled with risque images of them romancing heroines who are wearing saffron or orange.
Some of the tweets, such as the one targeting Ms Irani, were met with pushback from the party.
The exchange come amid attacks on the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 'Pathaan' by right-wing social media users backed by some leaders of the BJP, which governs at the centre - in the second such vitriolic campaign this year against a Muslim movie star after Aamir Khan's 'Laal Singh Chaddha' earlier.
Among those who have targeted the movie was Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra of the BJP, who claimed one of the songs in the film showed a "contaminated mindset" and threatened to block its release in the state.
Central to the controversy around 'Pathaan' is an allegation that in the song 'Besharam Rang' (Shameless Colour), actor Deepika Padukone wears an orange outfit which, according to its detractors, resembles the saffron that is sacred in Hinduism and is the main colour of the BJP.
Smriti Irani's swimsuit video and the scenes from Ravi Kishan and Manoj Tiwari's movies have been cited by many as demonstrations of the double standards of those criticising Deepika Padukone's bikini.
Campaigns based on such flimsy excuses against Mr Khan and those of his colleagues who are not seen as unabashed supporters of the ruling party have grown in recent years, threatening the country's vast film industry
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