No end to politics over Uttarakhand

Even as sources said that the Congress has advised its ministers and party leaders not to make comments against other parties and their leaders on Twitter, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweeted on Monday that while in Uttarakhand, his state's rescue teams not only rescued MP natives, they also helped pilgrims from "various states".

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"Apart from rescuing pilgrims from MP, our rescue teams have rescued 1810 pilgrims from various states without any discrimination," the Chief Minister tweeted. "MP choppers rescued 292 pilgrims of Madhya Pradesh and 247 of other states as well," another tweet said.

His tweet came on the same day of Congress and BJP leaders indulging in a bitter political battle over the Uttarakhand tragedy. Earlier, Gujarat Chief Minister and Chouhan's party colleague Narendra Modi was criticised on reports that he rescued 15,000 Gujaratis from the flood-hit state. Modi also offered to rebuild damaged Kedarnath town but the Uttarakhand government refused to take his help.

The unconfirmed reports of Modi rescuing stranded pilgrims of his state triggered a war of words between the Congress and the BJP, with the Congress even terming Modi "Rambo". On Monday, the two parties squabbled yet again with Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj demanding that Vijay Bahuguna-led government in Uttarakhand should be dismissed.

But, Bahuguna dismissed demands for his resignation and told CNN-IBN that he refused help from Modi because he didn't want a parallel rescue operation. "(Swaraj's demand of dismissal of Uttarakhand government comes) without being fully aware of the problem and the gigantic effort made by the state administration, the Army and other agencies. Other states have faced such calamities and I don't think such a demand was made by any political leader of this country," he said.

He further said that while he appreciated Modi's offer to help rebuild Kedarnath, he could not allow a parallel rescue operation by any other state. "Modi was kind enough to come here. He offered me Rs 5 crores and I sent him two letter of thanks. The other thing that he was offering was that he wanted to send helicopters to the affected areas to evacuate people from Gujarat. Other states requested the same. You can't segregate people of this country into states," Bahuguna said.