Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa today accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of allowing Mehul Choksi, a key accused in the PNB fraud case to escape from Karnataka, triggering a war of words on Twitter between them.
Choksi, the managing director of the 'Gitanjali Gems', is also the maternal uncle of billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi, who has been blamed for the colossal Punjab National Bank fraud.
The BJP leader tweeted, "Well well, this 'special someone' (who abandoned Mysuru), did allow the very same fugitive's uncle #ChoksiScam,to escape from Karnataka by flouting the Civil Court Order way back in 2015. This is none other than our own #SleepingChowkidar @siddarmaiah. Is it part of #10PercentCM ?"
Yeddyurappa picked up the term 'who abandoned Mysuru' from remarks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who, while attacking Siddaramaiah at a public rally in Mysuru on Monday, had said the cultural city was known for mannerism which a person forgot after reaching Bengaluru.
Siddaramaiah rubbished the charge and likened it to "Hitler's propaganda minister Goebbles' theory of repeating a lie 100 times to make people believe it to be true".
"Repeat a lie 100 times & people will start believing it to be true. You learnt this from Goebbels, Hitler's Information Minister. PNB, CBI, the Finance Ministry & PMO slept at their job & you want to blame an unexecuted warrant in a junior court in 2016 in an unconnected case!," Siddaramaiah wrote on Twitter.
PM Modi had also called upon people to "replace the '10 per cent commission government' (of Siddaramaiah) with 'mission government' (of Yeddyurappa)."
Hitting back at PM Modi and Yeddyurappa, Siddaramaiah shared a cartoon showing the prime minister as a watchman who remained asleep despite knowing money is being robbed.
With the cartoon he posted a message, "FM Jaitley blames Bankers/Auditors for the #NiravModi scam. @BSYBJP blames me for the scam. PM is silent. Maybe he is thinking of blaming Indira Gandhi for nationalising the Banks or Lala Lajpat Rai for setting up the PNB. Blame anyone but themselves appears to be the mantra."
PM Modi has earlier referred himself as the 'chowkidar' (watchman) of the country.
He also tweeted a cartoon showing ordinary citizens depositing money in banks at the time of demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes while liquor baron Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi robbing banks with the connivance with 'chowkidar'.
With the cartoon, he asked, "You made common people stand in queues to deposit their money in the Banks & then let #NiravModi run away with over (Rs)12,000 crore people's money. What percent of people's money is that?"
BJP and ruling Congress leaders have been locked in a war of words over various issues in the recent days in the poll-bound Karnataka.
