Most of India, especially the ruling BJP, was found writhing in anger on Friday over the remarks by Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari about Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Several BJP workers staged a protest in front of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi. The BJP has announced nationwide protests Saturday.

Speaking at the United Nation on Thursday, Bilawal Bhutto said: “Osama bin Laden is dead, but the Butcher of Gujarat lives and he is the Prime Minister of India.” Bhutto was reacting to Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, who repeated the allegation of terrorism against Pakistan.

The current Pakistani government has taken a tough line against India’s double game of fomenting terrorism and playing the victim at the same time. Pakistan has recently announced that it will go to the UN over India’s involvement in a bomb blast in Lahore’s Johar Town last year.

Every December 16 since 1971 Indians have celebrated Victory Day. This year they writhed in anger after Modi was called out for the Gujarat genocide.

Bilawal’s statement was made on the same day as the 51st anniversary of the Pakistani capitulation of Dhaka. On December 16, 1971, East Pakistan became Bangldesh as it broke away from Pakistan in what Narendra Modi recently said was an Indian-orchestrated plan. India celebrates the day every year as Vijay Divas or Victory Day, and many of its nationalists make jibes against Pakistan.

Ironically, this year it was India that simmered with rage and pain after Bilawal called out Modi for the Gujarat genocide of Muslims in 2002 when he was chief minister. There was such an outbreak of violence that Washington banned Modi’s entry to the United States. He was allowed in only after Indians elected him prime minister.

The Indian foreign ministry was quick to refer to the events of December 16, 1971. “These comments are a new low, even for Pakistan,” it said in a statement.

Anurag Thakur, the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, said “maybe they [Pakistan] still feel the pain of 1971.” He called Bilawal’s remarks “nefarious and shameful”.

But these statements did little to assuage the feelings of BJP workers smarting under the Butcher of Gujarat remark, so the party announced nationwide protests for Saturday, saying that effigies of Bilawal Bhutto and other Pakistani leaders would be burned.

The Indian government under Modi has done everything it could to “isolate” Pakistan in the international arena. However, it bounced back in October this year when German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock urged the United Nations to play its role “to solve the Kashmir dispute.”

Pakistan has also rebuilt its ties with the United States and reached out to Russia. There are indications that China will be reviving the CPEC project as well.