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In Rahul Gandhi’s jibe at Modi, Singapore PM’s video on coronavirus is ammo
In two tweets separated by an hour, Gandhi accused the prime minister of not taking the threat posed by coronavirus seriously and asked him to stop wasting the country’s time “playing the clown” with his social media accounts.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday tweeted Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s video address to his country on dealing with coronavirus outbreak with a sharp attack at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In two tweets separated by an hour, Gandhi accused the prime minister of not taking the threat posed by coronavirus seriously and asked him to stop wasting the country’s time “playing the clown” with his social media accounts.
Gandhi’s swipe is seen as a reference to PM Modi generating quite some buzz on social media last evening when he declared that he was thinking of “giving up” his social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram on Sunday. That tweet was interpreted to imply that he would exit social media.
WATCH | PM Modi ends suspense on quitting social media, reveals special plan
The prime minister ended the suspense this morning when he tweeted again with a campaign to let women “whose life and work inspire us” take over his social media handles on Sunday to commemorate International Women’s Day.
Gandhi had tweeted soon after, prodding the prime minister to focus on averting “the massive crisis about to be unleashed by the virus on India and its economy”.
In a second tweet, he rubbed it in.
“Quit wasting India’s time playing the clown with your social media accounts, when India is facing an emergency. Focus the attention of every Indian on taking on the Corona virus challenge,” Gandhi tweeted to PM Modi. He also uploaded a video of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong where the chief executive of the city-state had spoken at length on the challenge, how the government was facing the challenge and how citizens could contribute.
Gandhi’s tweet came around the same time that the prime minister was holding a review meeting to assess the state of preparedness. PM Modi tweeted soon after that different ministries and states were working together in this regard.
“There is no need to panic. We need to work together, take small yet important measures to ensure self-protection,” he said, putting out a Twitter card - Basic protective measures for all - that listed six precautions that people should take.
India has had five confirmed cases of coronavirus.
