Salman Khurshid, India's foreign minister
Salman Khurshid,India's Foreign Minister hails a diplomatic success behind the returning of the two Italian marines charged for murder in India, for mistakenly killing two Indian fishermen in the high seasReuters

The war of words between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress has boiled down to calling each other's party leaders with names of animals and insects. On Friday, BJP retaliated to External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid's 'frog remark' for Narendra Modi by calling him a 'cockroach'.

"Khurshid doesn't look like or sounds like the Foreign Minister of India, but sounds most like the Minister for Foreigners," BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi told ANI news on Friday.

She further added that if there be nuclear war instigated by Pakistan "only one person will survive and that will be Salman Khurshid because only cockroaches can survive the nuclear attack."

A day after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi slammed the Prime Minister's speech on Independence Day, Congress leader Khurshid called him a 'proverbial frog' who is yet to recognise his place.

"What should I say about Modi? He is like a frog just out of the well and at a loss to find the right place for him in the big wide world," Khurshid told PTI in Dehradun.

He mocked the BJP's election campaign committee chief saying that Modi was too keen to be accepted as a challenge by the Congress.

When asked about Modi's invite for a one-on-one public debate with the PM, Khurshid replied, "Prime Minister will come last. Let him debate with us first."

On his Independence Day speech in Bhuj, Gujarat, Modi talked of a 'serial of Saas, Bahu and Damaad' referring to Sonia Gandhi's relation to son-in-law Robert Vadra, and Khurshid retaliated, "And is he like Khalnayak (villain)? There was also that a film named Khalnayak. Khalnayak serial is also running. Ask him about that."

The war of words didn't end there. BJP's Lekhi lashed out at Khurshid for taking a jibe at Modi, "Those who chose the language, they have to be answered in the same language because their understanding is limited and the message needs to be communicated in the language they best understand."