First, it was Amit Shah. The president of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday betrayed his nervousness about the results of the ongoing assembly elections in Bihar and said that if – by mistake – the party lost in Bihar, Pakistanis would burst crackers to celebrate their defeat.

Then on Friday morning, Sushil Kumar Modi, the BJP stalwart who happened to be deputy chief minister under Nitish Kumar when the party was in alliance with the Janata Dal (United), echoed him, tweeting: "If BJP wins in Bihar there will be Diwali in India & if UPA wins there will be celebration in Pak."

It was not entirely clear what point Modi was trying to score here since nobody is contesting under a "UPA" or United Progressive Alliance banner in this election. The alliance between Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United), Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress is called the Mahagathbandhan. At best, Modi might have been attempting to refer to a time when Yadav was a member of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance at the centre.

Both remarks follow BJP advertisements in Bihari newspapers that accuse Nitish Kumar of being soft on terrorists, which is ostensibly the reason people in Pakistan will celebrate his victory. It is a tenuous connection and one that has been roundly mocked and scorned on social media.

It is early hours yet and Modi has not yet been at the receiving end of this. Amit Shah, however, has. Here is a taste of what has been said so far:

Some pointed out more obvious links:


Others tried to expand the picture to India's foreign policy.

Yet there was the usual whataboutery on display...

And, of course, there were those who pointed to the fact that one need not look to Pakistan, when 69% of Indian population voted against the BJP, even in the Lok Sabha election that the party won in a record electoral triumph.


But perhaps most worrying for the BJP is that even those who ordinarily endorse their policies seemed dismayed.