The Maharashtra units of the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday locked horns over the use of Chinese mobile application CamScanner, which was banned by the Central government last month following clashes at the border.
Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant referred to a photo of the list, posted by the BJP’s OBC cell president Yogesh Tilekar, announcing the appointments of office-bearers.
“China killed 20 of our soldiers. Instead of giving a befitting reply, the Indian government banned 59 Chinese mobile applications, including CamScanner. But the photo posted by the BJP on a social media site shows that the party is still using the app internally,” he said.
Calling it the BJP’s fake patriotism, Mr. Sawant said it is the BJP which is raising slogans to boycott Chinese products. “The BJP’s fake patriotism and its strategy to capitalise on people’s anger for political gains have been exposed,” he said, adding that the party’s action is anti-national.
As per the Congress claims, a Facebook post by the official webpage of the BJP announcing appointment of office-bearers to the OBC wing of the party showed that the PDF file was made using CamScanner.
The BJP said that the Congress’ allegations are false and are based on incomplete information. “The BJP has not used any banned app. This is nothing but a publicity stunt,” BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye said.
Mr. Upadhye said Mr. Sawant belongs to a party whose president had to apologise for making false accusations in the Rafale case. “It seems the stunt was to divert attention from the ongoing comedy in the Congress over the president’s post,” he said.
