Ravi Shankar Prasad's press conference in the Parliament House triggered a war of words between the Congress and the BJP.

A day after the BJP accused the Congress of having links with the now disgraced data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused the Modi government of 'inventing' a story to divert the media's attention from the issue of how it handled the death of 39 Indians abducted by the ISIS four years ago.

Taking to Twitter, Mr Gandhi said, “Problem: 39 Indians dead; Govt on the mat, caught lying. Solution: Invent story on Congress & Data Theft. Result: Media networks bite bait; 39 Indians vanish from radar. Problem solved.”

On Wednesday, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's press conference in the Parliament House triggered a war of words between the Congress and the BJP.

Citing media reports, Mr. Prasad said the Congress was relying on a "rogue data analysis firm" for 2019 elections.

'Another product from BJP's factory of fake news'

Hitting back, the Congress called the charge as yet another product from “BJP's factory of fake news.”

Congress communication chief Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that the BJP used the services of Ovleno Business Intelligence (OBI), the Indian subsidiary of the British firm, for various State elections and the OBI is owned by Amrish Tyagi, son of K.C. Tyagi, BJP ally and former MP of Janata Dal (United).

Mr Gandhi's tweet seems to suggest that Mr. Prasad's press conference took away the focus from how the government handled the issue of death of 39 Indians.

After External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed the Rajya Sabha that they were killed and their bodies have now been exhumed from a site in Badush (Iraq), the Congress accused the government of repeatedly “lying” that the Indians were “alive and safe”.

Several TV channels and newspapers on Tuesday interviewed several relatives of the victims and they claimed that they were given multiple “assurances of safety” by the External Affairs Ministry.