After Hindu Girls Remark, Anant Kumar Hegde Drags Dinesh Gundurao’s Muslim Wife in Twitter War

Bengaluru - A Twitter war has erupted between Union skill development minister Ananth Kumar Hegde and Karnataka state Congress president Dinesh Gundurao.

Hegde, a highly controversial minister and a five-time BJP MP from Uttara Kannada, had asked people on Sunday to make “the hand which touches a Hindu woman disappear”.

Gundurao condemned Hegde's statement in a tweet and questioned his contribution to Karnataka and his achievements as a minister.

An angry Hegde responded to Gundurao saying that state Congress chief's only achievement is running behind a Muslim girl, an oblique reference to his wife Tabu Rao, a Muslim.

An infuriated Dinesh attacked Hegde for lack of manners in public discourse, saying perhaps he didn’t learn from “Hindu scriptures”.

His wife Tabu, who stays away from politics, has in the past requested her husband's political opponents not to drag her into debates.

Even during Karnataka Assembly elections BJP MPs Shobha Karandlaje and Pratap Simha had attacked Dinesh Gundurao's inter-religious marriage.

Tabu had issued a public statement declaring that she was not a politician and no one should use her marriage to Dinesh to settle political scores.

Meanwhile, former CM Siddaramaiah also slammed Ananth Kumar in a tweet saying that he wasn't fit to be MP and should resign for his "insensitive" remarks.

(The author is a senior journalist. Views are personal)