Bengaluru: Karnataka BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel on Tuesday made a controversial remark on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi by calling him a drug peddler and and addict.
“Who is Rahul Gandhi? I am not saying it. Rahul Gandhi is a drug addict and drug peddler. It had come in media. You can’t even run the party,” he said.
This comes after a Kannada tweet from Karnataka Congress called Prime Minister Narendra Modi illiterate. DK Shivakumar later announced that the controversial tweet on PM Modi has been removed by the party’s social media team.
DK Shivakumar after Nalin’s tweet sought an apology and tweeted, “Yesterday I said I believe we should be civil and respectful in politics, even to our opponents. I hope the BJP agrees with me, and will apologise for their state president’s abusive and unparliamentary remarks against Shri Rahul Gandhi.”
Earlier, in a tweet, the official handle of Karnataka Congress used the phrase ‘angootha chhaap’ to insinuate that PM Modi is an illiterate.
The Opposition party wrote in Kannada, “Congress built schools but Modi never went to study. Congress even set up schemes for adults to learn, Modi didn’t learn there too. Even though begging is prohibited, people who are lazy have made the country’s people beggars. The country is suffering because of #angoothachhaapmodi.”
In response, BJP Karnataka’s spokesperson Malavika Avinash said, “Only the Congress could stoop so low.” She added that the comment did not even merit a response.
Lavanya Ballal, Karnataka Congress’ spokesperson, said the tone of tweet was ‘unfortunate’ and that an inquiry would be conducted. However, she said she saw no reason to retract the tweet or apologise for it.
Taking to Twitter, DK Shivakumar wrote that he always believed that ‘civil and parliamentary language is a non-negotiable pre-requisite for political discourse’ and said that the ‘uncivil tweet made by a novice social media manager’ through the Karnataka Congress official Twitter handle was regretted and stands withdrawn.
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