The BJP on Thursday latched onto a tweet by Congress leader Digvijaya Singh to sharpen its attack on Rahul Gandhi for “inviting foreign powers for interference into India’s internal affairs”.

Digvijaya on Thursday posted a tweet to thank Germany’s foreign affairs ministry for reacting to Rahul’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha. Soon, two central ministers were deployed to take on the former Wayanad MP.

“Thank you Germany Foreign Affairs Ministry and Richard Walker for taking note of how the Democracy is being compromised in India through the persecution of @RahulGandhi,” Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya tweeted.

Referring to Digvijaya’s tweet, law minister Kiren Rijiju tweeted: “Thank you Rahul Gandhi for inviting foreign powers for interference into India’s internal affairs.... India won’t tolerate ‘foreign influence’ anymore because our Prime Minister is Shri @naredramodi”.

The ruling BJP sought to use Digvijaya’s tweet as a confirmation of its accusation that Rahul, while speaking in the UK recently, had defamed Indian democracy by saying that it was under threat and went on to seek the intervention of the US and Europe.

Information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur tweeted: “Disgrace to nation, @INCIndia & @RahulGandhi, don’t believe to fight India’s democratic, political & legal battle within country, hence, invite foreign powers to interfere in our internal matter. But New India headed by @narendramodi Ji will not tolerate any foreign intervention.”

The political uproar from the ruling side came after a German foreign ministry spokesperson said the country had taken note of Rahul’s disqualification from Parliament while underlining that “standards of judicial independence and fundamental democratic principles” should apply inthe case of the Opposition leader.

The BJP has been stalling the Parliament since the second half of the budget session started early this month demanding Rahul’s “unconditional apology”, claiming he had defamed Indian democracy on foreign soil