NEW DELHI: One seldom expects an internet emoji to figure in a political debate. That's exactly what happened when the former chief minister of J&K
Mehbooba Mufti used a Pinocchio emoji to respond to an allegation by National Conference leader
Omar Abdullah.
Abdullah earlier today had accused Mufti of catering to both the groups by offering her support to the UPA as well as the NDA candidates in the upcoming election for the Rajya Sabha vice chairman.
“Mehbooba Mufti has told the Congress she will support the UPA candidate for Rajya Sabha vice chairman. She’s also told the BJP she will support the NDA candidate. How does that work exactly?” Abdullah tweeted.
Mufti disagreed. However, the PDP leader felt that an internet emoji, instead of a lengthy sentence in the English language, will be able to convey her message more resoundingly.
Hence came the Pinocchio emoji, or the Fake News Emoji.
The candid reply left the internet, including Abdullah, bemused. “Two former chief ministers are fighting each other with emojis. Twitter is great,” wrote a Twitter user.
Abdullah was pleasantly surprised with a former chief minister using emoji as part of her official conversation.
Though that wasn’t the end of emoji war between the two leaders.
When the National Conference leader congratulated the person handling Mufti's Twitter account for their sense of humour, the PDP leader used a ‘Facepalm’ emoji and added that Abdullah should "give compliments where it is due".
Later, Abdullah too decided to put his 'emoji skills' to use when he responded to a tweet by saying that he has been called "much worse" things in the past than a Pinocchio emoji.
However, since internet emojis are yet to become a part of the parliamentary language, both the political leaders decided that they will continue to stick with the more conventional mode of communication, i.e. English language.
In a different tweet, Mufti replied to Abdullah's allegation by saying that it (Abdullah's allegation) is a "dangerous propaganda" which is "detrimental to the truth" and "an attempt to misled people".
"Usually fake news and falsehoods are peddled by dubious news channels. But its baffling when a politician like Omar Abdullah fabricates stories based on pure fiction," she tweeted.
Few hours after levelling his first allegation, Abdullah tweeted again, saying that the PDP "has bowed" to BJP pressure and is likely to vote for its candidate.
