'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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Agencies
May 10,2020

New Delhi, May 10: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi ensured audit of donations made to the PM-CARES Fund, and to share the details and the money spent with the people.

"The PM-CARES Fund has received huge contributions from PSUs and major public utilities like the Railways. It's important that the Prime Minister ensure the fund is audited and that the record of money received and spent is available to the public," he tweeted.

The #PmCares fund has received huge contributions from PSUs & major public utilities like the Railways.

It’s important that PM ensures the fund is audited & that the record of money received and spent is available to the public.

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 9, 2020
His remarks came amid reports that the central government is accumulating a huge sum of money in the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund set up as a corpus to fight novel coronavirus and that the amount spent will not be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

The CAG office had clarified that since the fund is based on donations, it has no right to audit a charitable organisation.

On Friday, Rahul Gandhi told the media that the PM-CARES Fund should be audited and people of the country should know about the donors and the donations made.

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News Network
March 23,2020

New Delhi, Mar 23: The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country rose to 390 on Monday after 30 fresh cases were reported.

The figure includes 41 foreign nationals and the seven deaths reported so far.

Gujarat, Bihar and Maharahstra reported a death each on Sunday, while four fatalities were reported earlier from Karnataka, Delhi, Maharashtra and Punjab, the Union Health Ministry said.

The total number of active COVID-19 cases across the country now stands at 359, while 24 people have been cured/discharged/migrated.

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News Network
February 4,2020

New Delhi, Feb 4: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday accused Arvind Kejriwal of having a "partnership" with Pakistan and appealed to the people in Delhi to not vote for the AAP chief as it will make Pakistan happy.

Ramping up his attack on the Shaheen Bagh protest, Adityanath said that the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is merely an excuse for people to vent their anger against the scrapping of Article 370.

"You must have seen their partnership on 370. Arvind Kejriwal used to speak in the same voice as Imran Khan on Article 370. You must have heard it.

"Now when elections are taking place in Delhi, who is speaking in favour of Arvind Kejriwal? It is the ministers of Pakistan. They are aware that Kejriwal is feeding 'biryani to protesters at Shaheen Bagh'," he said, referring to Pakistan minister Fawad Chaudhry's tweet asking Indians to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Adityanath addressed three rallies on Monday in the national capital ahead of assembly elections.

"Will Pakistan decide who Indians should vote for. If voting for Kejriwal will make Pakistan happy, should it be done," he asked at a rally in Mehrauli.

Adityanath said his Delhi counterpart Kejriwal has become a "toy in the hands of anti-social and anti-India elements".

Addressing a rally in Vikaspuri in west Delhi, he said that Kejriwal is not bothered about key issues such as providing clean drinking water but is concerned about Shaheen Bagh, the anti-citizenship amendment act protest site.

At another rally in Uttam Nagar in west Delhi, Adityanath said Kejriwal has played with the emotions of the people of Delhi for the last five years.

"He obstructed the development of Delhi. And knowingly and unknowingly, he became a toy in the hands of anti-social and anti-India elements," Adityanath said.

The protest at Shaheen Bagh, he said, has disrupted traffic across the capital.

"A guest with an appointment to meet him at 9.30 am could only reach at 11. He told me he had left as early as 7 am but got stuck because of the traffic in Shaheen Bagh," he said.

The Uttar Pradesh chief minister also slammed Kejriwal for "sympathising" with elements who he said gave anti-India slogans in Jawaharlal Nehru University.

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