The two chief ministers traded allegations over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement in Lok Sabha that the Opposition had instigated and pushed migrants away from Mumbai and Delhi during the first COVID-19 wave
Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. PTI
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in Lok Sabha triggered an all-out Twitter war between Arvind Kejriwal and Yogi Adityanath on Monday night.
The two chief ministers bickered on Twitter over the statement made by Narendra Modi that the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had “instigated” migrants to travel amid the first lockdown and hence spread COVID-19 across the country.
Twitter wars
On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking in Lok Sabha had said, “The Congress crossed all limits during the first wave of COVID. During the first wave, when the country was in lockdown and when the WHO was advising everyone to stay wherever they are, the Congress went to the Mumbai railway station to scare innocent people. They pushed labourers to go back to their states and spread coronavirus.
“You pushed labourers into crisis. In Delhi, the government went around slums in jeeps and announced on mics that whoever wants to go home, buses have been arranged. Infections then shot up in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, where the coronavirus had not even spread that much. What kind of politics is this? How long will this politics will continue?”
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, reacting to the prime minister’s remark, said that it was a ‘blatant lie’.
“This statement of prime minister is a blatant lie. The country hopes that the prime minister will be sensitive to those who have suffered the pain of the Corona period, those who have lost their loved ones. It does not suit the prime minister to do politics on the sufferings of the people,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.
His party also tweeted to say the prime minister’s statement was “false”.
A few hours later, Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath hit back at Kejriwal in a series of tweets, saying his criticism of the prime minister was condemnable and he should apologise to the country.
In his tweets, the Uttar Pradesh chief minister accused his Delhi counterpart of “forcing the workers of UP to leave Delhi when the entire humanity was groaning due to the pain of Corona”.
Yogi Adityanath added, “Your government did an undemocratic and inhuman act like leaving even small children and women helpless on the UP border in the middle of the night.”
He then went on to accuse the Delhi chief minister of “cutting electricity and water” of migrant labourers and forcing them to leave the city.
Refusing to back down, Kejriwal hit back at Yogi Adityanath.
“Listen Yogi, You just let it be. Just like the dead bodies of the people of UP were flowing in the river and you were giving advertisements of your false applause in Times magazine by spending crores of rupees. I have never seen such a harsh and cruel ruler like you.”
Twitter war before polls
It’s interesting to note that this Twitter back-and-forth took place just days before the state of Uttar Pradesh goes to polls on 10 February.
Five states — Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur — will go to polls in different phases from 10 February to 3 March.
The results for all the states will be announced by the Election Commission on 10 March.
With inputs from agencies
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