A political row erupted after Congress posted a picture of a burning pair of RSS shorts on Twitter. Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha President Tejasvi Surya said the picture depicted that the fire Congress has stoked in the past has burned their political fortunes in the country.
Earlier today Congress tweeted a picture of fire-lit ‘Khakhi’ shorts and wrote, “To free the country from shackles of hate and undo the damage done by BJP-RSS. Step by step, we will reach our goal”.
The INC tweet came in light of the current Bharat Jodo Yatra which marks day 6 today.
Tejasvi Surya was quick to lament the tweet saying, “Fires they lit in the past have burnt them in most of India. The remaining members in Rajasthan and Chattisgarh will also reduce to ashes very soon”.
In a series of tweets, Survya recalled various incidents of violence in the past including the Delhi Sikh riots in 1984 and Godhra incident in 2002 where Karsevaks were burnt alive. The BJP leader hit out at Rahul Gandhi who is leading the Yatra and is currently in Kerala, and said that he is “fighting against the Indian state”.
“Congress fire burnt Delhi in 1984. Its ecosystem burnt alive 59 Karsevaks in Godhra in 2002. They have again given their ecosystem a call for violence. With Rahul Gandhi ‘fighting against Indian State’, Congress ceases to be a political party with faith in constitutional means,” Surya tweeted.
The war of words between Congress and BJP continued as a member of the BJP UP legislative council Jitin Prasada was quick to react to the Congress tweet and said that everybody should condemn the “politics of hate”.
Taking a jibe at the Indian National Congress, he tweeted, “Political differences are natural and understandable but what sort of mindset calls for burning political opponents? This politics of negativity and hate should be condemned by all”.
Making a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi for meeting controversial Catholic priest George Ponnaiah, Union Minister Ajay Bhatt on Sunday slammed for supporting people who want to divide India and said that Congress has been opposing every decision of PM Modi including the scrapping of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and the surgical strikes in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Reacting to Catholic priest George Ponnaiah’s controversial statement “Jesus Christ is the real God, not like Shakti,” Bhatt said that Rahul Gandhi is meeting “divisive personalities, Congress has consistently stood in support of former party president Rahul Gandhi on the priest controversy. The party claims that they don’t meet people after doing background checks and in Parliament, their MPs sit with the worshipers of Godse”.
Speaking to news agency, Bhatt said, “The people who have tried to divide the country and those who used to say that India will be divided into pieces, the Congress give respect to them, which clearly shows that those who work to divide the country, agitate, and break people are today talking about connecting India. First of all, Congress should answer why they have kept those people who talk about dividing our country. Those who were talking about breaking the country were doing big agitations, are today saying that they are working to unite India.”
Further, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who was in Jodhpur, also took a dig at Rahul Gandhi, saying that the Congress leader is leading a campaign to unite the nation- the Bharat Jodo Yatra “wearing a foreign T-shirt”.
Earlier, BJP had also attacked the Congress on social media, claiming that Rahul Gandhi, who has been raising the issue of inflation during the ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, was himself wearing a T-shirt worth Rs 41,257 and that too of a foreign brand when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been leading the mission of ‘Make-in-India’.
Replying to the BJP attack Congress’ Jairam Ramesh said, “I don’t want to talk about T-shirts, underwear. If they (BJP) want to make an issue about containers, shoes, or T-shirts, it shows that they are afraid and can say anything. ‘Jhoot ki factory’ is running overtime on social media”.