'My wife is worth more than your imaginary 50 crores', Tharoor tells Modi

October 30, 2012
shashi_tharoor_modi

New Delhi, October 30: When it comes to using social media tools like Facebook and Twitter to his advantage, very few can match newly-appointed Minister of State for Human Resources Development (HRD) Shashi Tharoor's battle skills.

Tharoor hit back at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday in his own inimitable style for calling his wife Sunanda Pushkar "a 50 crore girlfriend". Modi was alluding to the cricket controversy in 2010 involving Pushkar which led to Tharoor's resignation as Minister of State for External Affairs.

"My wife is worth a lot more than your imaginary 50 crores. She is priceless. But you need to be able to love someone to understand that," Tharoor tweeted to his 1.5 million followers on Twitter. It got retweeted over 800 times, sparking a Twitter clash between his and Modi's followers.

Admittedly, Tharoor's counter-attack was more sentimental compared to Modi's biting sarcasm on Monday while addressing a public rally as part of the campaign for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections. Though the BJP strongman didn't directly name either Tharoor or Pushkar, it was amply clear whom he was referring to.

"There was a Congress leader who was a minister in Parliament. He was accused of amassing wealth from cricket. He had said in Parliament that he is not connected to the Rs 50 crore in the lady's name. Have you ever heard of Rs 50 crore girlfriend?" Modi had said.

Modi did not stop at Tharoor. He mocked the Prime Minister, calling him 'Maun' Mohan Singh and took a jibe at Sonia Gandhi saying "she does not know how to run kitchen".

Tharoor is not new to Twitter controversies. He ran into trouble for a sarcastic response to a query that he would travel "cattle class out of solidarity with all our holy cows!" He had to later apologise for the comment.

But Modi didn't have it easy either. It was recently reported that nearly half of Modi's one million followers on Twitter are fake. An internet tool called 'Status People', created by a group of engineers in London, was used to track Modi's inactive users.


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News Network
June 18,2020

New Delhi, Jun 18: For the 12th consecutive day, state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) has increased the price of fuel on Thursday.

The price of petrol is increased by 53 paise a litre while that of diesel by 64 paise a litre.

Petrol and diesel will now cost Rs 77.81/litre and Rs 76.43/litre respectively in Delhi.

Notably, oil marketing companies have been adjusting retail rates in line with costs after an 82-day break from rate revision amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. These firms on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs.

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Agencies
April 24,2020

New Delhi, Apr 24: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has termed the government decision to freeze Dearness Allowance of Central government employees for a year as "insensitive and inhuman."

The former Congress President in a tweet said: "Lakhs and crores are being spent on the Bullet Train and New Delhi's Central Vista which should have been suspended, but the government has deducted DA of Central government employees and pensioners... It is insensitive and inhuman."

"The tragic part is that by deducting this amount from January 1, 2020 up to 30th June, 2021 for a period of 1.5 years, the government of India proceeds to deduct almost Rs 38 thousand crore from the income of these middle class government employees and pensioners, who rely completely on the pay and pensions that they receive," said Randeep Surjewala, chief spokesperson of Congress.

There are about 50 lakh such serving government employees and about 62 lakh pensioners.

"Even more tragic and objectionable is the fact that the government of India has not even spared our armed forces. The government has deducted Rs 11 thousand crore of the 15 lakh serving armed forces personnel and nearly 26 lakh military pensioners. What is their fault? They are serving the nation in times of all types of crises," said Surjewala.

The Congress alleged that the government did not spare the savings scheme.

Instead of curbing the wasteful expenditure, the government has been constantly hitting at the income of government employees and the middle class, it added.

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Agencies
August 8,2020

New Delhi, Aug 8: Former Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Saturday said that it is unfair and unfortunate to blame the pilots or the Airports Authority of India (AAI) for the Kerala place crash which took place on Friday evening.

"It is very unfortunate and unfair when experts come under television channel and they try to put blame on the Airports Authority of India or the pilots. Airport authority in an institution which has had survived various tests of time for the last 65 to 70 years, or pre-independence, so it is unfair to blame them," he said.

While speaking to news agency, Rajiv Pratap Rudy said that the 737 Boeing aircraft is reliable and the pilots were experienced, and it was wrong to blame them.

He further said that there are many possibilities on what could have happened, and said, "It is an accident and we need to find the facts."
Rajiv Pratap Rudy also expressed his deepest condolences to the family members of those who lost their lives in the plane crash. "This accident is terrible and heart-rending. 

I offer my deepest condolences to the family members of the captain and first officer, and the families of passengers who died and were injured," he said.

At least 18 people died when a plane carrying 190 passengers came from Dubai met with an accident at Karipur airport in Kozhikode on Friday evening, as per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

"Eighteen people, including two pilots, have lost their lives. It is unfortunate. 127 people are at hospitals, others have been released," said Puri on the Air India Express flight that crash-landed on Friday evening.

Air India Express Dubai-Kozhikode IX-1344 flight, carrying 190 people on board from Dubai under the Vande Bharat Mission, skidded off the runway at Karipur Airport in Kozhikode at 7.41 pm on Friday in which several people sustained injuries.

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