War of tweets over 'moron and murderer' remark

As Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal retweeted a comment, a deluge of tweets followed, many attacking Dadlani as 'misinformed'

A ‘war of tweets’ erupted on Twitter and entered the real world on Tuesday after Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s interview chaired on a private news channel on Monday night.

“Stuck between a moron and a murderer....what now, India!?” tweeted Bollywood music director and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporter Vishal Dadlani on Monday night, soon after Rahul’s interview.

As Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal retweeted the comment, a deluge of tweets followed, many attacking Dadlani as misinformed.

Dadlani took them on and tweeted: “Here's the bad news, trolls. You can threaten me all you like, and scream and shout yourselves hoarse. I will still say what I feel. Simple.”

On Tuesday, Kejriwal’s action of retweeting the tweet came under fire from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“It doesn't auger well at all. A chief minister, even if he endorses or doesn't endorse the retweet itself, he has allowed a certain language which is not deserving of either a chief minister or even a Member of Parliament. It is not doing the public discourse any favour. Being a chief minister, he should now be doubly conscious of what he endorses. If he doesn't, he does not have any business to retweet it and start this kind of language in the social media,” said BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharamam. “The comments are on public personalities, one occupying the position of chief minister of Gujarat and the other Member of Parliament. It might be the independent view of a music director, but the chief minister (Kejriwal) should have been conscious,” she added.

However, there has been no response from the Congress. In his interview, Rahul Gandhi had charged the Gujarat government and Chief Minister Narendra Modi with abetting communal riots.

“The difference between the 1984 riots and the riots in Gujarat was that in 1984, the government was trying to stop the riots. I remember, I was a child then, I remember the government was doing everything it could to stop the riots. In Gujarat, the opposite was the case. The government in Gujarat was actually abetting and pushing the riots further. So there is a huge difference between the two things, saying that innocent people dying is absolutely wrong,” Gandhi had said.

It is not clear exactly what prompted Dadlani to start the tweets and why the Delhi Chief Minister re-tweeted it.