Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi were on Monday engaged in a battle on social media after the latter took a dig at Home Minister Amit Shah for his comment that India is strong in protecting its borders.
‘Everyone knows the reality of the ‘borders,’ but the thought is good to keep one’s heart happy,” Mr. Gandhi tweeted, tweaking a famous Urdu couplet of Mirza Ghalib as well as the Home Minister’s surname.
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On Sunday, addressing a digital rally in Bihar, Mr. Shah had said India’s defence policy had gained global acceptance and the world agreed that “after the US and Israel, if there is any other country that is able to protect its borders, it is India.”
Though the Congress leader did not mention any specific border issue, the tweet was clearly about the stand off between India and China on the Ladakh border.
Replying to Mr. Gandhi in an equally poetic fashion, the Defence Minister quoted another couplet from Mirza Ghalib. “If there is pain in your hands, apply medicine. But when hands itself become the source of pain, then what do you do?” tweeted Mr. Singh.
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Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala then got into the fight with yet another couplet. “Dear Rajnath ji, when we pose a question, then questions are asked... Use the force in your hands as We are India. We demand answers against those who show us red eyes,” Mr. Surjewala replied in response to Mr. Singh’s tweet.
At an online press conference, party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said that while the party stands “with the government, with the people of this country, beyond the last mile on India security,” the Modi government had been deliberately ambiguous by not sharing anything with the Opposition parties
“You have treated us as enemies just because we are political adversaries. It is time that you shared with us,” Mr. Singhvi said.
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