NEW DELHI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi Friday courted controversy by tweeting pictures of the dog squad of Indian Army doing yoga and captioning it "New India", drawing a sharp retort from BJP chief Amit Shah who accused him of mocking Yoga Day and insulting the forces.


The official Twitter handle of Defense Spokesperson shared some pictures of the canine members of a unit of the armed forces performing yoga with their trainers on the morning of International Yoga Day. Gandhi shared these pictures on his Twitter handle to mock the event and called it the "New India", evoking sharp reactions from the BJP.

Shah hit out at Gandhi in a tweet and said while the Congress supports the medieval practice of triple talaq, it insults the armed forces yet again. He also accused the Congress of spreading negativity.

"Congress stands for negativity. Today, their negativity was seen in their clear support to the medieval practice of Triple Talaq. Now, they mock Yoga Day and insult our forces (yet again!) Hoping the spirit of positivity will prevail. It can help overcome toughest challenges," Shah tweeted.


Responding to the Congress chief's tweet, BJP MP from Bangalore South Tejasvi Surya said Gandhi still hasn’t learnt his lessons.

"Ok. He still hasn't learnt his lessons. In one go, he has insulted our Army, brave Jawans, the incredible dog unit, Yoga tradition & our country," he wrote on Twitter.

"I feel really sad for all the young Congress workers (if there are any left) that they have to deal with this man as their leader," he added.


BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli said under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there is a new india and Gandhi's tweet reveals a new Congress under him.

"Perhaps for him, life is one continuing joke for him and looking for opportunities to post pictures that remind him of his favourite Pidi (his pet dog)," he said.

Gandhi was also trolled on Twitter, with a number of people posting pictures about the Congress while poking fun at him and the party.

Earlier in the day, BJP's national general secretary Ram Madhav while taking a dig at Gandhi said that there were "kids" in Parliament and yoga will help those with "kiddish temperament".

During President Ram Nath Kovind's address to a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament on Thursday, Gandhi was seen scrolling through his mobile phone, kicking up a row.

"In the classroom, it might get difficult to focus on what the teacher is teaching. Its difficult to focus on our textbooks during examination. We fall asleep. But don't worry. There are kids in schools, there are kids in Parliament also," Madhav told the gathering, including school children.

"They can't even focus on the speech by our President. They have to go through their mobile phones, check their messages, or play video games. This kiddish temperament of unstable mind, if this needs to be controlled, you need yoga," the BJP leader said.