NEW DELHI: The BJP on Friday got unusual support in its bid to snub Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on his over-the-top expression of gratitude to the German foreign ministry’s spokesperson on the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the membership of the Lok Sabha. Digvijaya on Thursday thanked Germany for taking “Taking note” of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification.
That triggered a war of words between the BJP and Congress. However, Kapil Sibal, an ex-Congress leader who is a Rajya Sabha MP and a noted lawyer, took a swipe at Singh for his tweet on the spokesperson’s remark.
Sibal expressed his categorical disagreement with Singh, asserting that India does not need an ‘endorsement’ on the issue concerning Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification. He said the Opposition (using word ‘we’ for Opposition) doesn’t need crutches to walk on. Sibal quit Congress last year. He was elected as an MP to the Rajya Sabha with the support of Samajwadi Party last year.
Taking to twitter, Sibal ,quoting Digvijay Singh’s tweet, said : “Digvijay Singh: Thanked Berlin for “taking note of how democracy is being compromised in India”.My Thought: “We don’t crutches to walk ahead. We don’t need endorsements from abroad.” Sibal in the same tweet further said: “ Our fight is ours and in that, we are together.” Sibal also runs a non-electoral platform called ‘Insaaf’, which is aimed at fighting and raising voices against the injustice being perpetuated in the country against anyone.
After Sibal’s tweet, the BJP intensified its attack on the Congress on Friday. Union law minister and senior BJP leader Kiren Rijiju launching a fresh attack on Digvijaya Singh referred to the Emergency, saying democracy was “truly murdered” in 1975 by the Congress with the imposition of Emergency.
The Congress too distanced itself from Digvijaya’s tweet tagging the German foreign affairs ministry’s spokesperson’s statement. On Thursday, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, without taking the name of Digvijaya Singh, said through his official Twitter handle that India firmly believes that India’s democratic processes themselves have to deal with the threats posed to our democracy.