NDA desperate, staring at defeat in Bihar polls: Nitish

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today took potshots at Prime Minister Narendra Modi claiming "desperation" in NDA which is staring at "defeat" in Bihar polls even as Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy raked up a row after sharing on Twitter a screenshot of Pakistan's Dawn website and Kumar's advertisement appealing for votes.
"Staring at defeat in Bihar, the leaders and ministers of a government talking of Digital India have become desperate and are calling a GoogleAd the ad of Pakistani newspaper Dawn. Modi ji at least make your leaders aware of the basic facts of the digital world," Kumar said on Twitter while his party launched a sharp attack on Rudy seeking his immediate sacking.

Kumar also said that the Chief Executive Officer of Google Inc Sundar Pichai can also help him in this. Modi had last month congratulated Pichai on his appointment in Google.
Rudy, who is Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, got into the row when he shared the screenshot of Dawn website on his Twitter handle showing a poll advertisement of Nitish Kumar.
"Nitish advertises in PAKISTAN daily '"DAWN" e-edition to woo voters in Bihar. Why Pak? Whom does he want to reach?" Rudy tweeted. However, the remarks led to an outrage on social media, after which he deleted the post.

Scores of twitteratis castigated Rudy over his "ignorance" about Google ads and questioned his knowledge of the cyber world arguing that Google provides ads on any site based on the reader's locations and browsing habits and insisted that it's not an ad in "Dawn".

In another tweet, Kumar posted a screen shot from Google showing a picture of Modi and then BJP President Rajnath Singh in the run up to 2014 Lok Sabha polls above a page of Dawn newspaper and said," Cast a glance on the GoogleAds of Modiji's 2014 Lok Sabha polls before giving such a ridiculous statement."

JD(U) general secretary K C Tyagi wondered how the minister can promote skills in the country if he himself is so "unskilled".
"After BJP chief Amit Shah's statement that there will be "firecrackers in Pakistan" if NDA loses polls in Bihar, Rudy has accused Kumar of giving an ad in Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, which is ridiculous and betrays his ignorance. Rudy had on October 30 evening posted this particular screenshot of Dawn newspaper on his Twitter account, which was deleted after it was mocked at on social media.
"The Prime Minister is talking big about digital India but this unskilled attempt by his Skill Minister has raised a question mark on his campaign. What role such ministers will play in skill development when they betray such lack of skills. He should have known that such advertisements are part of automatic Google ad," Tyagi said.

Asking for his "immediate sacking", Tyagi said BJP should "explain why the statements of its senior leaders nowadays are Pakistan-centric".