External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday launched a veiled attack on the Opposition’s Presidential candidate, Meira Kumar. Ms. Swaraj posted on Twitter a video of her address to the Lok Sabha in 2013 on corruption charges faced by the UPA government, showing Ms. Kumar — the then Speaker — repeatedly interrupting her address.
“This is how Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar treated the Leader of Opposition,” the External Affairs Minister tweeted, obliquely suggesting that Ms. Kumar had been partisan.
Ms. Swaraj’s social media comments came on a day when Ms. Kumar wrote to members of the collegium for the Presidential election, asking them to heed the voice of conscience while casting their vote.
“As an honourable member of the collegium, you have the unique privilege to make history. This is that moment when one should heed the inner voice of conscience and set the course of the nation,” Ms. Kumar’s letter said.
The office of the President, she added, “cannot function to serve narrow political interests”.
This is being seen as Ms. Kumar's reaching out to an electoral college in which Mr. Kovind has a comfortable lead, given that the BJP has the largest presence there and others like the Janata Dal (United), AIADMK, TRS and BJD have backed him.
Elected members of Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies constitute the electoral college.
Ms. Kumar recalled her association, “in various ways”, with two monumental struggles — the freedom struggle and the struggle against caste tyranny. For long a leader of the Congress, she is also daughter of late party stalwart Jagjivan Ram.
Saying 17 parties had come together in this contest on the basis of “values and principles”, the letter seeks the members' support in “making history”. Just hours before, Ms Swaraj took to twitter to launch her attack on Ms. Kumar by sharing the 2013 video.
In her 2013 address Ms Swaraj, as then Leader of the Opposition, had sought to contest the notion that the BJP was disrupting Parliament, saying the party as the principal Opposition was highlighting the charges of corruption against the UPA government and refusing to cooperate with the regime as more scams were tumbling out.
Ms. Swaraj also tweeted a link to a newspaper report with the headline —'Speaker interrupted Sushma 60 times in 6-min speech.'
In the video, Ms. Kumar repeatedly said “thank you” and “all right” to Ms. Swaraj, signalling that the Leader of the Opposition should wind up her address.
