After Modi's Parliament speech, Kejriwal and Yogi engage in late night Twitter squabble

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's attack against the opposition in Parliament on Sunday, where he accused the party of instigating and scaring innocent labourers into fleeing to their native states at the height of COVID, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal hit back. "The Prime Minister's statement is completely false. The country hopes that the prime pinister will be sensitive towards those who bore the pain of the COVID-19 pandemic and those who lost their loved ones at that time. It doesn't suit the PM to indulge in politics over the suffering of the people," he tweeted in Hindi.

This resulted in a brouhaha on Twitter, with Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath taking swipes at Kejriwal. “Listen Kejriwal, you forced UP workers to leave Delhi when the entire country was reeling under the impact of coronavirus. It was an undemocratic and inhuman act, leaving even small children and women helpless on the UP border in the middle of the night. Should we call you an enemy of humanity or..," he asked. 

Kejriwal hit back: “Listen Yogi, dead bodies of the people of UP were flowing in the river and you were giving advertisements of false achievements in Times magazine by spending crores of rupees. I have never seen such a harsh and cruel ruler like you."

PM Modi had said in his address that, during the first wave of COVID, the Congress crossed all limits and committed the "big sin" of prompting migrant workers to leave Mumbai to "spread" the disease in states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The infection spread in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab due to this sin, he claimed. "Your conduct made the country think that you don't consider the country yours. People's 'sukh-dukh' is not yours," he said.

The prime minister noted that if the BJP loses one election the "ecosystem" goes after it for months and slammed the Congress, saying that after so many defeats, "neither your arrogance goes away, nor your ecosystem allows your arrogance to go away". While criticism is the ornament of a vibrant democracy, "blind opposition" is an "insult to democracy", he said. Modi said it would have been good if the Opposition would have accepted and welcomed with an open heart whatever the country has achieved by 'sabka prayas' and asserted that initiatives like "aatmanirbhar Bharat" and boosting start-ups are not done in a partisan manner but are aimed at the country's welfare.\

Hitting out at the Congress, Modi said, "Sometimes a thought comes to my mind, with their statements, their programmes, their misdeeds, the way you speak and connect with issues, it seems you have made up your mind of not coming back to power for 100 years. Nobody does this."

"If they had little hope that people would bless them they would not have done so. However, if you have only decided to [not come back to power] for a hundred years, I have also made preparations," he said, drawing cheers from the treasury benches.

When his government talks about being vocal for local, is it not fulfilling the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi, he said and added "then, why was it being mocked by the Opposition?"

"We talked about Yoga and Fit India but that was mocked by the Opposition too," he said.

He alleged that Congress has lost the desire to come to power and has a philosophy that when one is not getting anything then at least spoil something.