Sparring over the Baba Ramdev issue escalated today with the Congress dubbing the yoga guru and Anna Hazare as 'mukhota' (masks) of the Sangh Parivar and the BJP hitting back by terming the Government as a "headless chicken".
It was a free for all war of words with AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh spearheading the Congress attack and BJP's Arun Jaitley returning the fire.
Singh said both Ramdev and Hazare were "masks" of the Sangh Parivar including the RSS and the BJP which were out to destabilise the government and make a bid to get back to power.
Jaitley dubbed the government as a "headless chicken" over the handling of the Ramdev controversy. He alleged that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has no authority and the Gandhi family, where the powers lay, has no accountability.
Reacting sharply to the charges, Congress said the description fits well on the Opposition party itself as it was wandering in political wilderness for the last seven years and its remote control RSS is omnipresent but always hidden.
"From 2004 to 2011, people, who have been running around like headless chicken or rooster is BJP," party spokesperson Manish Tewari said pointing to the political wilderness of the Opposition party for seven long years.
Jaitely said there were two views in the government on how to deal with Ramdev's agitation.
He said while Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had favoured a political settlement of the issue, Home Minister P Chidambaram wanted use of force.