The ruling BJP, under fire from the opposition over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), and National Population Register (NPR), on Thursday slammed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his comment “PM of RSS lied to Mother India”  on the issue of detention centres in the country.

Earlier, seeking to contradict Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi posted on his Twitter handle a video showing a road leading to an alleged detention centre in Assam. “The Prime Minister of RSS lies to Bharat Mata,” Gandhi captioned his post with the hashtag ‘#lies, lies, lies.’

RSS का प्रधानमंत्री भारत माता से झूठ बोलता हैं ।#JhootJhootJhoot pic.twitter.com/XLne46INzH

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— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) December 26, 2019

At a press conference, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra hit out at the Congress leader’s Tweet against Modi. He called Rahul Gandhi ‘chieftain of liars’. He charged Rahul with spreading lies about detention centres. He said most of the detention centres the Congress party was trying to draw attention to came up during the UPA regime led by it.

In a bid to clarify the PM’s remark on detention centres, Patra pointed out that Modi had, in fact, said that no detention centre had been set up to detain Indian Muslims identified as illegal residents in India as per the NRC.

“He (PM Modi) said that no detention centre has been set up to detain any Indian Muslims as per the NRC under the present BJP rule. What is the lie in it?,” Patra asked.

He accused Rahul Gandhi of spreading lies. “Rahul Gandhi is spreading lies regarding detention centres. He and his Congress party have been spreading rumours that Muslims will be detained and deported. This is a pure lie,” the BJP spokesperson said.

In an attempt to turn the tables on the Congress party, Patra pointed out that three detention centres were set up at the behest of the previous Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.

Referring to a reply in response to a question in Parliament in 2011, Patra said according to the then Congress government, detention centres were built in Goalpara, Silchar, and Kokrajhar districts of Assam. “The then Congress government said that 362 people had been detained in those centres,” Patra added.

He asked Rahul Gandhi to apologise to the country for spreading falsehood about the detention centres.

“I want to ask the chieftain of liars: will you apologize to the country? Rahul Gandhi has no knowledge of any subject but speaks on everything…There is no link between the construction of detention centres and (NRC) National Register of Citizens,” Patra said.

The BJP spokesperson pointed out, “A detention centre is meant for foreigners and those who are residing in India illegally. This is to ensure they don’t disappear. This is only a confinement centre to keep a check on their movements,” Patra added.