Smriti Irani in Twitter spat with Congress spokesperson

A Twitter spat broke out between Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi and Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani on Monday with the latter taking potshots at the Congress for its defeat in Assam even as she denied getting 'Z' category security.

The Twitter sparring between the two leaders broke out after Chaturvedi, while interacting with another person, reacted to a tweet and said: "A perceived threat to Smriti Irani's life gets Z security, here I am struggling to get rape/death threat investigated."

"I don't have Z security madam," Irani responded.

To which, the Congress spokesperson retorted: "Madam I don't know the internal workings of Home Ministry, i go as per newspaper reports. I presume no security at all then @smritiirani?"

The HRD minister snapped back: "@priyankac19 why are you so interested in my security? Planning anything?"

Chaturvedi tweeted: "Not worth my time, so don't worry on that front @smritiirani, you must concentrate on creating another campus ruckus."

Irani ended her repartee with: "Priyanka dats more Rahulji's forte. Oh wait, losing Assam is. My bad. Have a good day."

Both Irani and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi were engaged in a fierce war of words over a ruckus and students' stir in several universities in the last few months across the country including at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi and the University of Hyderabad.

The war erupted after Shefali Vaidya, a Pune-based columnist, wrote on Twitter, "When Priyanka is trolled, it is an attack on 'dignity of women' but poisonous slander against Smriti Irani is acceptable."

Vaidya was actually commenting on an article written by Priyanka Chaturvedi for a popular website, where she claimed, "As an active Twitter user, who happens to belong to a political party (Congress) that is different from the current powers that be, getting trolled and facing abuse is a daily menace, which due to lack of better option, i have to grin and bear".

The issue of trolling has been in public discussion for quite sometime.

In a recent TV interview, Finance and Information and Broadcasting MInister Arun Jaitley had said any censorship on trolling was not possible.

"I don't think a censorship of this sort is possible," he had said.

--IANS

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