Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh
A day after coming down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for following some people on Twitter who post abusive messages, senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Friday gave embarrassing moments to the party by retweeting a poster that had offensive language against the PM. Although Singh did add a disclaimer — “Not mine but couldn’t help posting it. My apologies to the person concerned. He is the best in the “Art of Fooling!” — Singh’s tweet triggered sharp reactions from the BJP, which has also sought an apology from Congress president Sonia Gandhi. BJP spokespersons also warned that the party would “teach” the Congress a lesson if its leaders “stoop” to that level. Singh disowned the offensive language used in the post, saying it was a retweet and not an endorsement, but he did not delete the post. He even asked why everyone was silent when Congress leaders were abused. The Congress did not officially comment on the issue.
At Crossroads
A day after CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury suggested that the party’s analysis and alignment will change based upon change in the concrete conditions since the last national conclave in 2015, the party on Friday issued an unusual clarification. It said that the discussions for preparing the political resolution document for the next conclave has just begun. It left many cadres wondering whether the party was virtually trying to say that its chief’s statement was premature.
Keeping It Simple
President Ram Nath Kovind made his mark as a stickler for Hindi when he made minister Dharmendra Pradhan pronounce a chaste Hindi word correctly in his oath last week. But for his own speeches Kovind is learnt to be particular that words should generally be drawn from spoken Hindi — “bolchal-wali Hindi” — in place of chaste language that could be incomprehensible for many. He is known to inevitably ask for easier alternatives for Hindi words in his speeches whenever he finds a word too heavy for the occasion.
