Row after Tewari makes abusive remarks against PM
WILLING TO APOLOGISE FOR USING A ‘COLLOQUIAL’ HINDI PHRASE, SAYS FORMER MP FROM LUDHIANA
NEW DELHI: Congress leader and former Ludhiana MP Manish Tewari on Sunday triggered a row with a twitter post using abusive language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, evoking sharp reactions from the BJP and the twitterati with both demanding an apology from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.
Tewari is the second Congress leader after party general secretary Digvijaya Singh came under fire for using foul language against Modi. Singh had recently retweeted a post which contained expletives against the PM.
In his post, Tewari used abusive words and wrote in Hindi in Roman script about how Modi “befooled” people and that “Even Mahatma cannot teach MODI Deshbhakti (patriotism)”.
He was responding to a remark made by a person on the microblogging website that patriotism is in the DNA of Modi and even Mahatma Gandhi cannot teach him that.
It was made in response to a video clip put out by Tewari about a gaffe purportedly committed by Modi abroad when he had started walking even as the national anthem was being played.
Reacting sharply, Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said a desperate Congress and its leaders have “lost their mental balance” after being rejected by people. He said they are using foul language against Modi as they have run out of logic to counter him. “A depressed Congress has become an expired bubble of abuses. When they do not have logic they take to such cheap language. The Congress has been rejected by the people and since then its leaders have lost their mental balance. They are in need of urgent psychiatric treatment,” Naqvi told PTI.
He said it is unfortunate that they have forgotten the dignity and decorum politics requires while targeting the BJP and the PM. “It shows the mental state of the Congress and its leaders and the Congress leadership under Sonia Gandhi should apologise for this,” he said.
By using such language, leaders like Tewari will destroy whatever little support base the Congress has been left with, he said.
Tewari later said he was willing to apologise for a “colloquial” Hindi phrase and meant no offence to the Prime Minister or Mahatma Gandhi.
“No offence meant to PM or the Mahatma both of whom were invoked in response not my original tweet. In between flights saw brouhaha on Twitter therefore context if brouhaha is over Hindi phrase in colloquial — used to describe idiocy. In this case of person who put PM over the Mahatma,” he said.
Another BJP leader Subramanian Swamy alleged that someone else is “orchestrating” Congress’ abusive attack as Tewari has the reputation of being sober and sensitive.
“The only person I think who has the authority to make (such a remark) is Rahul Gandhi, who can say anything anytime. There is a frustration in the Congress that despite all the policy failures that they are trying to point out the country is solidly with the BJP,” he said.