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And the WAR continues; Congress-BJP name calling on Twitter

Mar 27, 2018, 07:22 am IST

All they need is an opportunity, a stage, and a mike. Not to forget their Twitter handles to hurl names and abuses at each other.

The latest news in target is the data leaks via political apps that has the BJP and Congress engaged in a Twitter war.

One called the other “dimwit” and a third called a fourth “Chhota Bheem”, as the Congress and BJP commenced a high-decibel war on Twitter today accusing each other of sharing users’ data via their apps.

Little would anyone have known when the story about the UK’s Cambridge Analytica (CA) broke last week, that the Indian political establishment would be in turmoil over similar issues that hit Facebook thanks to the now-disgraced British analytics firm.

CA, of course, mined 50 million users’ Facebook data without their permission and is said to have used that information to influence the 2016 US election in favor of the Republican Party.

Here, the Congress and the BJP first accused each other of links with CA. Then, over the weekend, the Congress targeted the Prime Minister’s NaMo app, for alleged data sharing with a US firm, a charge the BJP rebutted earlier today by pointing a finger at the Congress and accusing it of the same with its app. Following that, reports that the Congress has taken down its app resulted in a fresh round of finger-pointing.

Much of this mudslinging is occurring over microblogging site Twitter.

The BJP’s Smriti Irani called the Congress president “Chhota Bheem”, and not in a nice way. The Congress party’s social media head called the BJP’s IT head Amit Malviya a “dimwit”, decidedly not in a nice way.

The Congress president called Narendra Modi “the Big Boss”, possibly referring to George Orwell’s fictional ‘Big Brother’, who’s supposed to have been ‘watching everyone’. The BJP’s Amit Malviya said that groups that are like-minded with the Congress include “Maoists, stone pelters, Bharat Ke Tukde Gang, (and the) Chinese embassy”.

READ ALSO: Is NaMo App Big Boss? Rahul says yes; BJP says no

Here’s a collection of such tweets from both sides:

This is Irani with her “Chhota Bheem” swipe.

This is the Congress’s Spandana with her “dimwit” jibe.

Here’s the BJP’s Malviya with examples of who the Congress’s like-minded groups are.

Here’s the Congress president calling Narendra Modi “the big boss”.

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Here’s Rahul, again, chastising Modi, saying data about Indians “belongs to India, not Modi.”

Here’s the BJP’s Karnataka unit calling Rahul “technically challenged”.

Here’s Irani ridiculing the Congress for having deleted its app.

This is the Congress’s Spandana saying the app has been defunct for a while and asking, “how difficult is that to understand”.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of insults the two sides have hurled at each other today or over the past few days, and nor does it seem this back-and-forth is going to let up anytime soon.

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Mar 27, 2018, 07:22 am IST

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