Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has put up a poster at ITO area in the national Capital, calling former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi the “father of mob lynching”. Bagga said he put up the poster in response to Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s claim that his party was not involved in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, The Indian Express reported.

“After what Rahul Gandhi said about the 1984 riots, it was important to give him a history lesson,” Bagga said on Tuesday. “He should know his father was the producer/director of the 1984 massacre. Leaders involved still hold senior positions in the party, so how can he make such a statement. After 2014, for any incident, Congress has given a new word, ‘mob lynching’, but this was started by Rajiv Gandhi long ago.”

However, an unidentified BJP spokesperson attempted to distance the party from the poster. Bagga agreed. “That’s why I have not put BJP’s name anywhere,” he said. “As a human being who lives just half a kilometre from a colony which saw the greatest loss during 1984, I thought it was important to create awareness.”

Congress spokesperson Sharmistha Mukherjee accused the BJP of endorsing “dirty politics”. “Though BJP has disassociated itself from such posters, they have not taken action against Bagga,” she said. “There might be political differences but acts like this by a person, who physically attacked [lawyer] Prashant Bhushan, is cheap politics. Congress might have ideological differences but it has always given due respect to prime ministers.”