Mangaluru : The BJP on Thursday demanded an inquiry into a ‘toolkit’ that aims to tarnish the image of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by calling the new strain of coronavirus as “India strain” or the “Modi strain”.

Addressing presspersons here, chief spokesperson of the State BJP Capt. Ganesh Karnik said that investigating agencies should conduct a thorough probe into the toolkit controversy and the guilty should be punished.

The Congress is desperate after losing Assembly elections in five States recently. Hence, he said, it has resorted to the toolkit model of damaging the reputation of the country and the Prime Minister in handling COVID-19-related issues.

The Congress is trying to create fear among people in the country as far as handling of COVID-19 matters is concerned by instructing its volunteers to use the term “Modi strain” or “Indian strain” for the mutant variant during the second wave, Capt. Karnik said.

The spokesperson said that the Congress which ruled the country for long did not create enough health infrastructure facilities on par with the population of the country. Now, it is blaming the BJP-led Union government for lack of medical facilities, he added.

Capt. Karnik said that the Congress has joined hands in a conspiracy to tarnish the image of the country in the international level by exaggerating cremation of bodies of COVID-19 victims.

“It is a part of the Congress eco-system and the toolkit model of conspiracy,” he added.