Omar hopes Rahul will take up PM's challenge

Opposition National Conference leader Omar Abdullah today hoped that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi will take up the challenge of speaking extempore for 15 minutes about the Karanataka government so that he could ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain why Kathua rape and murder case was a 'minor issue'.

"I hope @RahulGandhi takes up the Hon PM's challenge & speaks w/out using notes for 15 min about the Karnataka Govt & then perhaps we can ask the Hon PM to speak for 2 min about why the rape & murder of an 8 year old girl is 'a minor issue'(sic)," Abdullah tweeted.

Adressing a rally in poll-bound Karnataka, Prime Minister Modi had challenged Rahul Gandhi to speak in any language about the achievements of his party's government in the state without referring to a piece of paper.

"I dare the Congress president to speak in Hindi, English or the mother tongue of his mother to deliver a speech in Karnataka for 15 minutes, without reading out from a piece of paper, on the achievements of (his) party government...people of Karnataka will draw their own conclusion," Modi had said at an election rally Santemaranahalli in Chamaraja district.

Abdullah in his tweet sought to link the Prime Minister's dare with controversial comments made by BJP leader and newly sworn in Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Kavinder Gupta who had termed the Kathua rape and murder case as a "minor issue which should not be given importance by the media".