BJP leaders on Tuesday raked up the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and called former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi the "father of mob lynching" to hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his attack on the government over incidents of lynching.

"Before 2014, the word 'lynching' was practically unheard of. #ThankYouModiJi," Rahul Gandhi tweeted, days after two cases of lynching in the Congress-ruled Punjab. The two men were lynched in separate incidents, and both of them were accused of sacrilege by Sikh religious leaders.