New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's sharp attack over the Yogi Adityanath government's response to protests over the new citizenship law brought a stinging response from the Chief Minister and his deputy.
In a Hindi tweet under hashtag #BhagwameinLokKalyan (public welfare in saffron), Yogi Adityanath issued another warning of punishment.
The tweet, roughly translated, read: "Anyone interrupting a sanyasi's continuous efforts for public welfare will be punished. Those who inherited politics and practice politics of appeasement would hardly understand the concept of service."
At a press conference on Monday, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had taken on Yogi Adityanath over the police crackdown on protesters - the arrests and detentions - and a threat of seizure and auction of their property from the Chief Minister.
"We will take badla (revenge)" on those indulging in destroying public property," he had said.
Pointing out that Yogi Adityanath had donned saffron, a mark of the country's "religious and spiritual tradition", she said, "There is no place for revenge, violence or anger in the country's soul".
"This is the country of Lord Krishna - who was the symbol of compassion. Lord Ram was symbol of compassion... When Sri Krishna gave sermon to Arjun during the Mahabharat war, he did not talk about revenge or anger to the great warrior. He only brought out the feelings of compassion and truth," she said.
Yogi Adityanath's deputy Dinesh Sharma was the first to hit back, accusing her of starting a "clash of religions for your politics".
"Yogi-ji has imbibed a religion. The Hindu religion never teaches to do any harm to anyone. Hindu religion does not speak about insulting any other religion. Hindu religion is very huge and you are saying that a person (imbibing Hindu religion) is doing such a thing," he said.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mr Sharma said, stands with those indulging in violence.
Clarifying the Chief Minister's remark, he added that Yogi Adityanath meant that the vandals will have to pay for the damage caused to public property during the protests.