A day after actor-politician Pawan Kalyan lashed out at Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, the latter hit back, stating that some were taking to social media like Twitter “for just passing time”.
Taking multiple digs at the Jana Sena chief, Naidu was cautious however, not to directly name Pawan Kalyan.
"PM Modi has become No 1 in the world even on Twitter as he is witnessing enormous following on the social networking site. The entire country is witnessing Mission Modi now. PM’s popularity is growing with each passing day and his graph is going upwards. But, there are some people, who don’t have any work but are taking to Twitter," he was quoted as saying.
Claiming that it was "no use posting messages continuously on Twitter, when nobody follows you", Naidu also responded to allegations that the Centre was propagating a North-South divide.
"It's inappropriate for anybody to make such baseless allegations. BJP treats the whole country as one. Where is the question of South or North here? It's not good for anybody to try to whip up regional sentiments among people,” he reportedly said.
Addressing a news conference on Friday, Kalyan slammed the Chandrababu Naidu government for what he called its “opportunistic politics”, and accused the BJP of creating “something bordering on dictatorial democracy” in the country.
Speaking on the issue of special category status, Pawan warned the government against believing that the protests would die down since the agitation at Vishakapatnam’s RK beach had been prevented.
Targetting both Chandrababu Naidu and Venkaiah Naidu, Pawan accused them of pretending to care about injustices to Andhra only in order to win votes. “Before the elections, both Chandrababu Naidu and Venkaiah Naidu had spoken about how injustice was meted out to Andhra and how they were in need of help. But now after taking all the votes they have gone back on their word,” he said.
“Do you think this is a game? If you turn your back on us, do you think people will fold their hands and prostate in front of you?” Pawan demanded of Venkaiah Naidu.
Pawan's comment also drew flak from the BJP. Putting out a statement, BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao said:
"Pawan Kalyan is a political opportunist and a Twitter tiger. He is trying to ride a readymade wave, if someone can drive it. He has neither sincerity of purpose nor maturity to address people's concerns structurally. He lacks conviction to be in the midst of the people, whom he wishes to fight for. He is a part time politician who operates through press conferences and Twitter... His statements are unwarranted, baseless and juvenile. No one who understands basic tenets of governance will make silly statements like he made in his press conference today."