Congress, BJP in Twitter war over Uttarakhand rescue ops

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Swapan Dasgupta [1]

Bengaluru: The ruling Congress and main opposition party BJP have locked horns on Twitter, the micro-blogging site, on Monday over the rescue operations and efforts taking place in the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand.
Starting off the battle, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari questioned the BJP leaders' absence in the northern state after the tragedy struck. 
"H'onble LOP's have mindspace to critique govt proposals on CBI autonomy that are yet to be placed before SC but no time to visit Uttrakhand. Did anyone see LOP's in both houses express sympathy/visit disaster hit Uttrakhand This from a party that criticizes visits of. Cong leaders (sic)," he tweeted early on Monday morning.
Sushma Swaraj, leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, has also started the day with Uttarakhand on her Twitter handle. "I am sorry to say that the Government in Uttarakhand has not been able to rise to the occasion.They ought to be dismissed for being inept and incompetent," Sushma posted on Twitter.
She blamed the Congress governments in Uttarakhand and Centre. "Unfortunately, the Government in Delhi has also failed to provide the requisite leadership," she added.
 
After sometime, Sushma brought herself back on Twitter, palpably after reading Manish Tewari's statements. She had her points to counter and justified the absence of BJP leaders in Uttarakhand.
 
"We did not go to Uttarakhand because Home Minister made a public statement that our visit will hamper the rescue effort. He went to the extent of saying that nobody including himself was allowed to land anywhere," Sushma hit back.
 
"The truth is that I woke you (Govt) up about the scale of tragedy when I spoke to Home Minister on 18th June and tweeted about this. When we enforce accountability, you call it politics. We will not allow you this escape route to hide your failures," she went onto say.
 
She also made use of the space and appreciated the efforts of Army personnel. "All rescue operations have been done by Army, airforce and ITBP. They have done this at the cost of their lives. I salute them," her next tweet read.
 
Continuing her attack against Congress, she added: "What has your state Government done ? Nothing. The living are starving. The dead are being robbed. And you are patting your back."
 
"Those who cannot govern in crisis do not deserve to be in the Government even for a day," was another tweet from the BJP leader.