Ministers and BJP leaders jumped in to attack Gandhi as the shadowboxing continued over Twitter and the BJP held a press conference to counter the Congress attack.
As the data sharing controversy peaked on Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), singed by Congress president Rahul Gandhi's tweets targeting the PM, accused the rival party of sharing user data from its official app with a Singapore firm.
Ministers and BJP leaders jumped in to attack Gandhi as the shadowboxing continued over Twitter and the BJP held a press conference to counter the Congress attack.
Union Minister Smriti Irani mocked Gandhi, saying even 'Chhota Bheem', a cartoon character, knew that commonly asked permissions by apps did not "tantamount to snooping".
"@RahulGandhi ji, even 'Chhota Bheem' knows that commonly asked permission on Apps don't tantamount to snooping," Irani tweeted. In yet another tweet, she said, "Ye kya @RahulGandhi ji it seems your team is doing the opposite of what you asked for. Instead of #DeleteNaMoApp, they have deleted the Congress App itself."
"Now that we're talking tech, would you care to answer @RahulGandhi ji why Congress sends data to Singapore Servers which can be accessed by any Tom, Dick and Analytica?" she added.
BJP IT department head Amit Malviya, too, hit back at Gandhi with the same accusation that he shared user data from Congress's app with a Singapore firm.
Malviya shared a picture of the disclaimer of the Congress website on Twitter.
In a tit-for-tat move, Malviya tweeted: "Hi! My name is Rahul Gandhi. I am the President of India's oldest political party. When you sign up for our official App, I give all your data to my friends in Singapore."
"Full marks to @INCIndia for stating upfront that they'll give your data to practically anyone — undisclosed vendors, unknown volunteers, even 'groups with similar causes'. In the theft of all forms, Congress has never been discreet!," he added.
Malviya accused the Congress of sharing user data with "like-minded people" such as "Maoists, stone- pelters, Bharat Ke Tukde Gang, the Chinese embassy and 'renowned' orgs like Cambridge Analytica."
"Inspired by Sonia Gandhi's 'all power, no accountability' dictum, Congress will take all your data, even share it worldwide with orgs like Cambridge Analytica but will not take responsibility for it! Their own policy says so," he tweeted.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra's dubbed Gandhi's tweets 'technological illiteracy' which had "rarely been seen in Indian politics".
It was the Congress app, he alleged, that was "stealing" people's data and as soon as the BJP exposed it, the opposition party took it down from Google's play store, making it "Congress-mukt".
He alleged that the Congress was stealing data of 20 crore Indian Facebook users with the help of Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm embroiled in charges of harvesting people's social media profile illegally, but was caught, leaving Gandhi rattled. "Because of his technological illiteracy he should not deceive the people of this country," Patra said.
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