Srinagar, April 18: Former chief ministers of the State of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday indulged in a war of words on microblogging website Twitter after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded the Malegaon blasts accused Pragya Singh Thakur from Bhopal parliamentary seat.
The spat began with Mehbooba taking to Twitter to criticise the BJP for fielding Thakur who is out on bail in Malegaon blasts case.
“Imagine the anger if I’d field a terror accused. Channels would’ve gone berserk by now trending a mehboobaterrorist hashtag! According to these guys terror has no religion when it comes to saffron fanatics but otherwise all Muslims are terrorists. Guilty until proven innocent (sic),” tweeted Mehbooba.
National Conference vice president Omar Abdullah responded to Mehbooba’s tweet, saying the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president had started to notice the “crimes” of the BJP only after the party “unceremoniously unseated her”.
“These guys” were your allies until they unceremoniously unseated you. “These guys” have been this way before they came to power in 2014 but you only noticed their sins after June 2018.The desire to remain in power blinded you to their crimes until “these guys” forced you to see!,” Omar responded to Mehbooba.
Mehbooba was quick to respond to Omar’s allegations saying the NC leader who was a junior minister in Vajpayee government did not resign even after Gujarat riots.
“Someone’s had a belated reaction to my tweet! As their first ally from J&K you’d know their true colours since you served as an MoE under NDA. Oddly enough Ram Vilas Paswan resigned post Gujarat carnage on moral grounds but you chose not to. Consume almonds Omar. Improves memory (sic),” Mehbooba said in another tweet.
To this, Omar responded that he would debate his tenure with Mehbooba directly and not with her “understudy”.
“When you are done tweeting for your mother you can tell her I’m more than happy to debate my 3 years with Vajpayee Sahib v/s her 4 years with Modi ji but I’d rather do that directly with her & not with her understudy,” wrote Omar.
Mehbooba responded by saying that you (Omar Abdullah) should answer the questions rather than distracting from the topic.
“That’s no answer to my questions! Did I hit a raw nerve? Deflecting it with juveline comebacks wont help Omar. If I were you Id pop an antacid for the stomach burn (sic),” Mehbooba shot back.
Editor-in-chief of news gathering agency Asian News International (ANI) Smita Prakash also questioned Mehbooba over using her Twitter handle.
“It appears as if a random person has gotten hold of Mehbooba Mufti’s Twitter handle. Tweets appear to be of some hyper kid or enthu-cutlet rather than an ex CM,” Smita asked.
Mehbooba Mufti had earlier alleged that ANI was far from being a ‘neutral news agency’.
“ANI is far from being a neutral news agency now. When not fawning over the current regime, its busy discrediting major stories that harm PMs image. Alternate facts are created whereas real stories are pushed under the rug. They only show you what BJP wants you to see (sic),” Mehbooba tweeted.
