Indian National Congress party President Rahul Gandhi
ARUN SANKAR/AFP/Getty Images

It is election time in India and what better way to tell this than the oldest political rivals of the country, BJP and Congress, mocking each other over who is more respectful towards terrorists! Well, the war of words began with Congress president Rahul Gandhi's reference to Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar as "Masood Azhar Ji" while speaking to his party members in New Delhi on Monday. 

As national security took the centre stage in the elections, Rahul Gandhi was reminding Congress workers that Masood Azhar was released during the Indian Airlines plane hijacking in 1999. "Those people with 56-inch chest should recall that it was the current National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval, who escorted Masood Azhar Ji to Kandahar and went in an aircraft with him to free him," Gandhi said. 

He added that Masood Azhar, who was freed by the then Vajpayee-led BJP government, was responsible for the Pulwama terror attack that led to the killing of 40 CRPF personnel.

Congress, BJP train guns at each other on Twitter

Soon after Rahul Gandhi's reference to JeM chief as "Masood Azhar Ji", senior Union ministers from BJP, including Ravi Shankar Prasad and Smriti Irani, attacked the Congress chief on Twitter calling his party as "sympathiser of terrorists".

Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted that Congress has a habit of referring to terrorists with utmost respect and reminded them of their earlier slips of the tongue when they referred to Lashkar-e- Taiba chief Hafiz saeed as "Hafiz saeed Sahab."

Smriti Irani told ANI that the nation is surprised why Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is showering respect on terorists who were responsible for the killing of 40 soldiers.

Congress seemed to be in no mood to hold back and soon posted videos of Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP chief spokesperson Sambit Patra and former Union minister Murli Manohar Joshi calling India's most wanted terrorists as "jee or sahab".

It is Congress Non Working Committee under a non performing president: Sambit Patra

Congress and BJP workers are working overtime now to trend hastags like #MasoodAzharJi , #HafizJi, #BJPlovesterrorists on Twitter.