The Congress and the BJP on Sunday sparred over the ongoing Twitter row. Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at the Modi Government, saying it is fighting for a blue tick while leaving people to become “aatmanirbhar” (self-reliant) to get Covid vaccines. Hitting back, the BJP said he should get out of social media and work on the ground. The BJP also asked him to speak to Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled States regarding alleged scams and irregularities in the Covid vaccination programme there.
Rahul’s remarks came a day after outrage over the removal of ‘blue tick’ badge from the personal accounts of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and RSS’ top functionaries, including Mohan Bhagwat, by Twitter, only to restore it later.
“The Modi government is fighting for the blue tick. If you want a Covid vaccine, then be self-reliant,” he said in a sarcastic tweet in Hindi, using the hashtag “#Priorities”.
Taking a dig at the former Congress chief, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said doing politics on Twitter is his (Rahul’s) “most important subject” and “biggest platform”.
Patra asserted that the Modi government has done an admirable job in spearheading such a big inoculation programme and providing free ration to the poor.
For her part, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged that the Modi government reduced oxygen beds by 36 per cent, ICU beds by 46 per cent, ventilator beds by 28 per cent between September 2020 and January 2021.
“Is the health of Indian citizens less important than the Central Vista project?” she asked, alleging that the Government has declared the project as an essential service with people working day and night to complete it by 2023.
“When every expert in the country, the Parliamentary Committee on Health and their own sero-surveys warned them that additional beds would be needed for an inevitable second wave,” she said as part of her ‘ZimmedarKaun’ (Who is responsible) campaign.