The Congress on Friday complained that the BJP was persistently defaming the Bharat Jodo Yatra with falsehood and innuendos instead of engaging with the ideological questions and critical issues, like unemployment and high prices, that were attracting millions to the walkathon.

The comment came after Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said Rahul’s beard made him look like Saddam Hussein and the BJP attacked the Congress over a video that purportedly showed a Yatra participant shouting “Pakistan zindabad”. The Congress has called the video “doctored” and threatened legal action.

“Woh bol rahe hain Rahul dadhi kaise rakhen, ham poochh rahen hain log gadi kaise rakhen (They are commenting on Rahul’s beard, we are asking how people will afford cars),” Kanhaiya Kumar said at a news conference in Madhya Pradesh, flagging the rise in fuel prices.

Kanhaiya said the BJP should have the moral courage to discuss substantive issues.

“Modiji kahte hain main gaali khata hun, hum poochh rahe hain gareeb thali mein kya khaye (Modi is complaining he is being forced to stomach insults, we are asking how the poor should fill their stomach),” he said.

Kanhaiya said it was clear to those participating in the Yatra that people across the country were troubled by the rising prices and job crisis, apart from the grave fallout of divisive politics.

As for the video, the BJP has cited it to accuse the Congress of “breaking India”, although it’s slogans to break caste and religious barriers and unite India that have dominated the Yatra from morning to evening every day.

BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya tweeted the video, saying the Madhya Pradesh Congress had posted the video and then deleted it realising it had made a faux pas. “This is Congress’s truth…” Malviya said.

Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh tweeted: “A video doctored by the Dirty Tricks Department of the BJP is doing the rounds to discredit the highly successful Bharat Jodo Yatra. We are taking the necessary legal action immediately. We are prepared for such tactics, and there will be payback.”

Kanhaiya told the news conference: “People used to ask us, ‘What will happen when you enter the Hindi heartland, because the South is anyway sympathetic to the Congress’. We have come to Madhya Pradesh and nothing has changed -– the public response, the issues and the BJP’s meaningless barbs.

“Everything is the same. We are seeing distressed farmers, frustrated youths, extreme poverty…. The Yatra is raising political, social, cultural and economic issues but the BJP is commenting on frivolous subjects.”

Ramesh said the worst roads the Yatra had so far encountered after traversing seven states were in Madhya Pradesh.

“Out of the (last) 19 years, the BJP has been in power in Madhya Pradesh for 17 years. We have walked on the roads of Burhanpur, Khandwa, Khargone… there are potholes only, making walking dangerous. Chief minister Shivraj Singh (Chouhan) should focus on these issues instead of making meaningless statements,” he said.

Chouhan too had tweeted about the controversial video, saying: “Chanting slogan of Pakistan Zindabad in Bharat Jodo Yatra is uniting India or attracting those who break India? They have broken India in the past, do they intend to break India again? Those who raised slogans of Pakistan Zindabad will not be spared at any cost, strict action will be taken against them.”