BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today joined the increasing number of political leaders across party lines to come out in support of Union Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, who has been subjected to vicious trolling on Twitter in the past few days.
Taking to the social media platforms, he “strongly condemned” the conduct of trolls and praised Swaraj for her proactive presence on social media, prompt response to citizens facing problems and ensuring their timely resolution.
In a tweet, Patnaik said, “Strongly denounce the vitriolic & intolerant responses to @SushmaSwaraj ji. She has been a leader in using social media to help common citizens of the country. Such conduct must be strongly condemned.”
Among the BJP leaders, Patnaik is known to have close and friendly relationship with Sushma Swaraj. The Odisha Chief Minister has been very reticent on political issues and associations on his social media. But he has been engaging with Swaraj on the platforms. He had taken to twitter to express concern over her health following detection of her kidney ailment and wished her speedy recovery.
“Wish @SushmaSwaraj ji a speedy recovery. My prayers are with her”, he had tweeted, responding to Swaraj’s announcement of her illness on twitter.
The External Affair Minister has faced severe troll attack on issuance of passport to an inter-faith couple in Lucknow and transfer of the Passport Seva Kendra official for allegedly insulting them. The attack has been mainly from the right wing and supporters of BJP who accused her of “Muslim appeasement” and alleged that the officer faced action for doing his duty. But some trolls crossed all limits of civility and launched all out abusive personal attack on her.
True to her style, Swaraj responded to the trolling by liking and retweeting the abusive tweets. She also ran a twitter poll on the issue, where 57% respondents were in her support and surprisingly, 43% also supported the trolls.
Earlier former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had expressed horror over the trolling of Swaraj on Twitter.
“Horrified by the vicious trolling @SushmaSwaraj ji has been subjected to. Absolutely outrageous! If our own Minister of External Affairs is not spared, what hope is there for any other woman?” Mufti had tweeted.
Mamata Banerjee tweeted, “Strongly condemn the language used on the social media against @sushmaswaraj Ji . She is a senior politician. We must respect each other and must never indulge in any form of verbal abuse”