'Suno Kejriwal', 'Suno Yogi': Twitter spat after PM Modi's Parliament speech

A war of words broke out on Twitter late Monday night between Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal over the Covid-19 pandemic response.

The verbal duel began hours after Kejriwal reacted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speech in the Lok Sabha in which he accused the Delhi government of fear-mongering and forcing migrants to leave their homes and rush back to their native villages. The Prime Minister had also said that the Delhi government arranged buses for people to leave, but left them midway and created hardships for migrants. He went on to say that this was why the pandemic spread at a faster rate in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab.

Reacting to the Prime Minister's remarks, Kejriwal took to Twitter to accuse the former of lying. Stating that those who bore the brunt of the pandemic and lost their near and dear ones to the pandemic expected the Prime Minister to be more sensitive, the Aam Aadmi Party chief slammed him for playing politics over the pain and suffering of the citizens.

Hours later, Yogi Adityanath countered the Delhi chief minister; his post beginning with "Suno Kejriwal" (Listen Kejriwal). Yogi said, "You forced those from Uttar Pradesh who were working in Delhi to leave the city when the entire humanity was writhing in pain and suffering due to Coronavirus. Your government did an inhuman and undemocratic act like leaving women and small kids helpless on the UP border in the middle of the night. Should we call you inhuman..."

The remarks clearly did not go down well with Kejriwal, who responded with a Twitter post beginning with "Suno Yogi" (listen, Yogi). Kejriwal said, "You should let it be. When dead bodies of the people of Uttar Pradesh were flowing in the river, you were spending crores of rupees on advertisements to get yourself on the Time's magazine. I have never seen such a cruel and heartless administrator like you."

Twitter erupted over the "suno" series of tweets. While some told Kejriwal how the Yogi Adityanath government's measures to tackle the Coronavirus pandemic were allegedly praised by the World Health Organisation, others highlighted how the Uttar Pradesh government itself had arranged 1000 buses so that migrants could reach their native villages safely.