Kicking up a controversy, Karnataka BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel called Congress leader Rahul Gandhi a “drug peddler and an 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.
Responding to his remarks, Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar sought an apology from the BJP for Kateel’s “abusive and unparliamentary” statement.
“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,” he wrote on Twitter.
BJP leader’s remarks came a day after the official Twitter handle of Karnataka Congress referred to Prime Minister Narendra Modi an “angootha chaap” (illiterate).
However, the party’s social media team pull down the tweet after it drew sharp reactions from the BJP.
“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,” the now-deleted tweet read.
Shivakumar had yesterday expressed regret over the “uncivil tweet” by his party’s social media team and said “civil and parliamentary language is a non-negotiable pre-requisite for political discourse”.
“I have always believed that civil and parliamentary language is a non-negotiable pre-requisite for political discourse. An uncivil tweet made by a novice social media manager through the Karnataka Congress official Twitter handle is regretted and stands withdrawn,” he had tweeted.
