Twitter Wars: Smriti Irani, Priyanka Chaturvedi in a Verbal Spat

Smriti Irani and Priyanka Chaturvedi argue over security and Rahul Gandhi.

Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani is no stranger to Twitter spats. A fresh argument broke out on Monday when her conversation with Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi went from curt to caustic very fast.

To set a context to the argument, Chaturvedi reportedly received an open threat last week on Twitter of “rape and murder like Nirbhaya.”

Since then, she has been vocal on social media about trolls and slander on the internet, and the need to take cyber abuse against women seriously.

But clearly, there were some who thought Chaturvedi was getting more than her fair share of attention.

The argument started with this tweet from Shefali Vaidya, a blogger at The Frustrated Indian.

Ms @ShefVaidya a perceived threat to @smritiirani 's life gets Z sec,here I am struggling to get rape/death threat investigated.cut the crap

— Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) May 23, 2016

But Chaturvedi’s interaction with Vaidya sparked a war of words between her and Irani, which aggravated rapidly.

Irani was quick to defend herself.

Madam I don't know the internal workings of Home Ministry, i go as per newspaper reports. I presume no security at all then @smritiirani ?

— Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) May 23, 2016

Not worth my time , so don't worry on that front @smritiirani , you must concentrate on creating another campus ruckus.

— Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) May 23, 2016

The spat soon escalated and of course, Rahul Gandhi’s name found its way into the argument.

Repeatedly losing and yet becoming a minister in the cabinet is your forte. You have a glorious day too @smritiirani

— Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) May 23, 2016

At this point the argument reached a dead-end (for now). But we’ll have to wait and see if the day has more excitement in store.