Journalist who sparked BJP-AAP twitter row after his beer, urinating in Ganga tweet apologises

New Delhi: General elections 2014 have become a no holds barred slugfest with political parties and leaders engaging in degraded political discourse. An attack on Aam Aadmi Party workers by BJP workers in Varanasi on Monday night triggered a new war between the political parties on Twitter. On Monday, several volunteers of Aam Aadmi Party were thrashed near the banks of Ganga River in Varanasi. Three AAP volunteers were injured in an alleged attack by some suspected BJP workers in Assi Ghat following which an FIR was lodged against 15 unidentified persons. Hashmi Shams Tabreed, the journalist who kicked up a storm on Tuesday with his Tweets where he alleged that "AAP folks had been engaged in a fight with people who objected to their drinking beer at Assi ghat and urinating in Ganga" has apologised for his tweets. In a tweet late on Tuesday evening, Tabreed wrote, "Dear @ankitlal and @AamAadmiParty There has been some unintended outcome of my tweets. Please accept my apology." He also tweeted that “ My twitter account has been manipulated to spread rumours at Varanasi, please ignore them.”

He further wrote, "As a habit I post Tweets to a small group of followers on Twitter about what i'm hearing on the ground. It's my personal account where I express my individual opinions. I may have my biases but the intention is never to start a slur campaign. I was surprised at the responses [sic] to the tweets and I just found out that media houses were running a story quoting me as source which is condemnable. The tweets were based on version of some locals and can't be confirmed as truth, should not have been run as a story. I sincerely apologise as my tweets have been used for unintended purposes. I'm deleting all the tweets I posted today. Respect and my best wishes to you and your party."

On Tueday, Tabreed's Tweets had sparked off a social war between the AAP and BJP supporters. On Twitter, the two trending topics of the day on Tuesday were #BJPkeGundey and #AAPkeSharabi. #BJPkeGundey because AAP said the attackers were from the BJP. #AAPkeSharabi because BJP supporters accused the victims of creating a ruckus at Assi Ghat.

While the AAP said BJP supporters attacked the duo without provocation while they had stopped at a shop to drink water, a right-leaning journalists claimed a fight had ensued after AAP supporters were seen drinking beer and urinating in the Ganga. Sources say, both the AAP volunteers underwent a medical examination before filing an FIR and none of them were found to be under the influence of alcohol.