A war of words between Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal and his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath broke out hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed the Delhi government for asking migrant workers to leave the capital during the first wave of COVID-19 in 2020.
Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) called the statement a "blatant lie".
Sharing a video of Modi's speech in parliament, AAP chief Kejriwal said in a tweet in Hindi: "The prime minister's statement is a blatant lie. The country expects the prime mnister to be sensitive towards those who bore the pain of the pandemic and those who lost their loved ones at that time. It doesn't suit him to use politics over their plight".
Arvind Kejriwal tweets about PM Modi's Statement in parliament.
© Photo : Twitter/@ArvindKejriwal
A few hours later, Uttar Pradesh State Chief and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician Adityanath attacked Kejriwal in a series of tweets in Hindi, saying his criticism of PM Modi's statement was condemnable and demanded that he apologise to the whole country.
Uttar Pradesh State Chief Yogi Adityanath reacts to Arvind Kejriwal's tweet.
© Photo : Twitter/@myogiadityanath
He said: "Kejriwal has a knack for telling lies. When the whole country was battling a global pandemic under the leadership of the respected prime minister, Kejriwal showed migrant labourers the way out of Delhi".
Yogi Adityanath slams Kejriwal.
© Photo : Twitter/@myogiadityanath
He added that the electricity and water connections of migrants were cut and people were sent to the Uttar Pradesh (UP) border by buses.
Yogi Adityanath accuses Arvind Kejriwal of forcing migrant workers to leave Delhi.
© Photo : Twitter/@myogiadityanath
The Uttar Pradesh state chief further said: "Listen Kejriwal, you forced the workers of Uttar Pradesh to leave Delhi when all of humanity was reeling under the impact of COVID. Your government did an undemocratic and inhumane act like leaving even small children and women helpless on the Uttar Pradesh border in the middle of the night. Should we call you an enemy of humanity or..."
He was referring to the thousands of migrant workers from the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who had to leave Delhi along with their families despite facing a lot of hardship, following the first COVID-induced lockdown in 2020.
Uttar Pradesh State Chief Yogi calls Kejriwal "enemy of humanity".
© Photo : Twitter/@myogiadityanath
The Delhi state chief then replied to Adityanath in a similar tone, by tweeting in Hindi: "Listen Yogi, you just let it be. Dead bodies of the people of Uttar Pradesh were floating in the river and you were busy spending millions of rupees in advertising your false propaganda in Times magazine. I have never seen such a cruel ruler like you".
Kejriwal Slams Yogi over dead bodies in Ganges River.
© Photo : Twitter/@ArvindKejriwal
Kejriwal was referring to reports which said that around 2,000 bodies were found either floating or buried on the banks of the Ganges River in India in May 2021 when the country was hit by the devastating second wave of coronavirus.
It is believed that most of the bodies belonged to COVID-19 victims, as many Indian cities could no longer cremate them.