Ease of doing politics: Rahul-Jaitley tweet war over economy takes a poetic turn

To hit back at Arun Jaitley for his "ease of doing corruption" jibe at the Congress, Rahul Gandhi mocked the Finance Minister with the spoof of a Mirza Ghalib couplet, saying everyone knows the "reality" of ease of doing business in India but "Dr Jaitley" prefers to delude himself.

"Sabko maaloom hai ease of doing business ki haqeeqat, khud ko khush rakhne ke liye Dr Jaitley khayal achha hai," Rahul Gandhi tweeted today.

The Congress leader, with his new and humorous avatar on the social media, tweaked the iconic Urdu poet Ghalib's famous couplet: "Hum ko maloom hai jannat ki haqeeqat lekin, dil ke khush rakhne ko Ghalib ye khayal achcha hai (We know the reality of Paradise O' Ghalib; but to keep the heart happy about it, this idea is good)."

Jaitley immediately shot back at Rahul, pointing out the difference between the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA governments.

"The difference between the UPA and NDA -- the ease of doing corruption has been replaced by the ease of doing business," the Finance Minister tweeted, apparently in reply to Gandhi's tweet that was re-tweeted more than 4,000 times, attracted nearly 2,500 comments and 9,000 likes within four hours of the post.

On the other hand, Jaitley's tweet had 720 comments, was liked by 1,700 tweeter users and retweeted 720 times within an hour of his reply to the Congress leader.

THE WAR WAS OFFLINE TOO

Outside Twitter too, Rahul Gandhi hit out at the BJP over the World Bank's report on 'ease of doing business' released on Tuesday.

The report said India's rank on the 'ease of doing business' scale has risen from 130 to 100 this year, helped by a slew of reforms in taxation, licensing, investor protection and bankruptcy resolution.

But the Congress was not impressed. "Jaitley ji said ease of doing business has seen improvement in India. Is he living in real or a dream world?" Rahul asked at a rally in Bharuch in poll-bound Gujarat.

"Arun Jaitley ji is working on the basis of some foreign institution. India does not need a certificate from foreign institution. India needs a certificate from the country, and the people are saying Narendra Modi, Arun Jaitley have failed," he added.

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