A senior Congress leader admitted that while name-calling and use of unparliamentary language has come to stay in the Indian political discourse, Digvijaya Singh's tweet certainly crossed the red-line
While politicians in democracies all over world engage in heated debates and exchanges, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, who has a penchant for making outrageous statements, on Friday went overboard with his choice of words for criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Taking to Twitter to take pot-shots at Modi, the Congress leader ended up attracting disdain for using a WhatsApp post with a picture of the PM containing cuss words, demeaning the Prime Minister. The tweet by Singh had an apparent reference to Modi saying, "He is the best in the art of fooling!"
A senior Congress leader admitted that while name-calling and use of unparliamentary language has come to stay in the Indian political discourse, Singh's tweet certainly crossed the red-line.
Though, Singh defended his action by saying he had only put out what he received on WhatsApp, nobody bought his claim.
Singh, also party general secretary, is known for his foot-in-mouth statements, which often end up embarrassing the party.
Last year, he referred to Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir as India-Occupied-Kashmir. This was at a time when tensions were at an all time high between the two neighbours. He also famously referred to terrorists Osama bin Laden and Hafiz Saeed as as "Osamaji" and "saheb", respectively.
In 2013, he described party colleague Meenakshi Natarajan as "sau tunch maal" Later, Digvijaya said his remark meant that Natarajan was like "pure gold" and threatened legal action against TV channels for wrongly reporting it.
"Digvijaya Singh's comments on Twitter reflect the Congress party's diseased mind. They have not only insulted the elected Prime Minister of this country, but also the people of India," said BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao.
Singh's tweet against Modi came even as his party's attack on the Prime Minister and the BJP over vicious messages posted by some Twitter accounts against journalist Gauri Lankesh who was murdered at her Bengaluru home on Tuesday evening, continued.
Many tweeples, including leaders of the Congress, AAP and other opposition parties, had pointed out that at least four twitter accounts followed by Narendra Modi had posted highly objectionable tweets after Lankesh's murder.
"While we fight trolls, PM Modi ignites them," the Congress had said.
However, what the Congress didn't highlight was the fact while Modi's twitter account follows normal people and frequently interacts with them on various issues, the earlier PMO handle had even resorted to actually blocking many people.
On Modi following those who had expressed happiness on the killing of the Bangalore based journalist, BJP leaders argue that the PM also follows Rahul Gandhi, who is an accused in the National Herald case. "Does that mean all those people who follow Rahul's twitter account including PM Modi endorse Rahul's alleged frauds or his often-controversial views?"
The Congress vice-president has also been associated with some people known for abuses. He never distanced himself from Amaresh Mishra, known for targeting the BJP leaders in abusive language. Sanjay Nirupam, who Rahul follows, had uttered despicable remarks against Smriti Irani on live TV. Amarinder Singh Raja, who is Youth Congress president, whom Rahul still follows, has also been guilty of tweeting innuendo-laced tweets aimed at Smriti Irani.
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