Congress, BJP involved in unseemly war of tweets on 'jailbirds, ex-jailbirds'

Siddaramaiah was talking about Shah and former BJP CM BR Yeddyurappa, both of whom have spent time in jail, yes. Shah was arrested and jailed in 2010 for allegedly being involved in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh killed in a fake encounter some years before that

The gloves are off in the war of tweets between the BJP and the Congress in the run-up to the Karnataka Assembly polls, with the two parties now engaged in an unseemly 'Who has bigger jailbirds' squabble.

That is, each is accusing the other of harbouring members who've been in prison. And in the process, even assassinated former PMs have become fair game for the BJP.

It all started yesterday with BJP president Amit Shah saying that 'corruption' and 'CM Siddaramaiah' are synonyms. The Congress CM then hit back saying he thought it was rich that he's being accused by a man who's actually been in jail, and one who's chosen another former jailbird as CM candidate.

Siddaramaiah was talking about Shah and former BJP CM BR Yeddyurappa, both of whom have spent time in jail, yes. Shah was arrested and jailed in 2010 for allegedly being involved in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh killed in a fake encounter some years before that. Yeddyurappa was arrested and jailed for allegedly denotifying land in and around Bengaluru illegally, for monetary gains. Both BJP leaders were later acquitted in their respective cases.

Then today, Sadananda Gowda, also a former BJP Karnataka CM, jumped into the fray and tweeted to remind Siddaramaiah that this avatar of the Congress party was formed by a leader who has spent time in jail. And that leader's son, said Gowda, would also have been in jail but for the fact that he was assassinated.

"Congress(I) Was Formed By Ex -Jail Bird who Became Ex-Prime Minister of the country for Corruption Her Son Ex-Prime minister would have permanently remained as Jail Bird For Bofors Corruption But sadly your party sponsored terrorism assassinated him ..Need more list sir ?" said Gowda in a tweet today.

Gowda was talking about former PM Indira Gandhi, who formed the current Congress party, which is Congress (I), as in, 'I for Indira'.

True, Indira was jailed in 1978 on charges of "planning the killing of all opposition leaders in jail during the Emergency." But what Gowda may have forgotten is that Indira was jailed by the British, too, before Independence in 1942-43.

As for her son, Rajiv Gandhi, whom Gowda is referring to, he was never in jail. But Gowda is alleging that he would have been arrested in the Bofors kickbacks case but was spared that ignominy when he was assassinated in 1991.

That riposte by the BJP appears to be the last nail in the coffin of civil discourse.

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