Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is suffering from melanophobia, the fear of colour black, these days. After black scarves, balloons and flags now even black undergarments are giving BJP the blues.

A leading Hindi daily, Jansatta, has reported that during a women’s conference held by the BJP, which was chaired by none other than the party’s president Amit Shah, women participants had to undergo pat-downs and their undergarments were also searched.

The report claimed that to ensure that participants don’t carry the black flags inside the venue and show them to Amit Shah, lady cops asked participating women to take off their clothes before they were allowed to enter the venue for a Mahila Sammelan at Bhilai Charoda in Chhattisgarh.

“Earlier, they would ask men to take off their socks or belts in the name of security. But now this thing has happened to women and girls. This party (BJP) claims to be the champion of women’s rights but the incident only shows party’s sick mindset,” Kiranmayi, a Chattisgarh Congress leader, was quoted as saying.

“The party keeps talking about it’s slogan: ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (save girl child, educate girl child’. But in reality, there is need for saving girl-child and women from the BJP leaders, who give patronage to rapists,” she further told the daily, adding, “expecting anything from them (BJP) would be dishonesty.”

Notably, a balloon seller was arrested after protesters showed black flags and flew black balloons before Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on September 18. Chouhan was in Satna to address a convention of backward classes held by the BJP in view of opposition to the new SC/ST Atrocities Act.

Similarly, police had reportedly asked college students remove their black scarves before participating in the Chief Minister’s rally on September 12. The scarves were taken away by the police fearing protests at the rally and the same were returned only after Chouhan had left the venue.

Recently, BJP leaders including Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and two MPs, Nityanand Rai and Manoj Tiwari, were shown black flags at different places in the state.

The shocking incident has triggered a flurry of criticism on social media, with several users wondering as to why mainstream media was silent over it. Here’s a collection of top-trending Twitter reactions: