Rafale deal controversy: AAP joins BJP-Congress war on social media

The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) haven't always been on the best of terms. There were differences over the September 10 Bharat Bandh that the Congress had organised. While the AAP government refused to participate, it supported the bandh “morally”. The Congress had also kept the AAP leadership out of some of the Opposition party meetings it had organised. But on Saturday, the Congress social media team was helped significantly by the AAP on the Rafale fighter jet issue. AAP social media chief Ankit Lal and his team ran an aggressive social media campaign based on Congress president Rahul Gandhi's evening press conference. They obviously didn't credit Gandhi or run his photograph and video clips, but carried his slogan accusing the Prime Minister of corruption and demanding answers from him.

 
No BJP script for Mohanlal
 
On September 3, when the rest of us were celebrating Janmashtami, Malayalam superstar Mohanlal met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to brief him about his Vishwa Santhi Foundation. Since then, speculation had been rife that he would contest the 2019 general elections as a BJP candidate from Kerala. Mohanlal finally put the matter to rest with a blog post in Malayalam on Friday. “Being an Indian citizen, if I have permission, I can always meet the PM,” he said. The BJP also dismissed the possibility of Mohanlal joining the party as “just a rumour”. “What is surprising is that the PM has not spoken to me a word of politics,” Mohanlal wrote.

 

Long arm of the law?
 
An Andhra Pradesh police inspector caused quite a flutter over the weekend when he threatened to cut off the tongues of elected representatives if they spoke out in a manner that was deemed hurtful by his force. Inspector Madhav of Kadiri in Anantapuramu district directed his tirade at ruling Telugu Desam Party MP J C Diwakar Reddy, who had lodged a complaint alleging the police fled when there was a group clash in a village, unable to bring the situation under control. “Henceforth, if anybody talks against the police beyond the limit, we will not tolerate it,” he sent out the warning through a press conference. A senior police officer later tried to mitigate the situation saying it was improper for an officer to make such a comment against peoples’ representatives, whatever be the provocation.