War of words breaks out between AAP and BJP

A war of words today broke out between between AAP and BJP over the state of affairs in Gujarat, particularly on farmer suicide issue, with both sides accusing each other of propogating "falsehood" and distorting facts.

While the Gujarat government chose to dismiss AAP's convener Arvind Kejriwal's claims of a large number of farmer suicide in the state as "falsehood" and an effort to "gain publicity", the latter citing a government data said the saffron party's assertion that the state had been able to avoid farmer suicides is "shockingly tragic".

"The BJP rebuttal claiming the Gujarat has made 'excellent arrangement for infrastructure and inputs' that have 'been able to avoid farmer suicides' is shockingly tragic and removed from the data available, AAP said in a press release today.

AAP cited a National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data on farmer suicides and stated that this was the only authentic data for farmer suicides for the country and the party is keen to see the data on which (Narendra) Modi's government has based it's claims.

In a point by point rebuttal issued for the first time, the Gujarat government said the claims made by Kejriwal will have no effect on Modi's popularity among citizens of this country.

"...He is making bluffs following his political tradition. He might get some publicity but he will not be successful. People will give him a much-needed answer," a Gujarat government statement said.

Reacting to the BJP government's stand on gas pricing issue, AAP said the press release makes a vague claim that "the Standing Committee of Finance of Parliament headed by the BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has seriously questioned the Gas pricing policy and sought review of the same", but says nothing about the the party's position.