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Rajnath Singh becomes first BJP leader to condemn trolling of Sushma Swaraj

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday became the first top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader to condemn the harassment of his senior cabinet colleague.

Rajnath Singh becomes first BJP leader to condemn trolling of Sushma Swaraj

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh (Photo: Facebook)

Almost over a week after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj came under attack from trolls, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday became the first top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader to condemn the harassment of his senior cabinet colleague.

Answering a question on the vicious trolling Swaraj faced on social media, Singh said that he does not support such vile targeting of the EAM.

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Main bilkul galat manta hun. (I consider it wrong),” he said in response to a question on what he felt about the trolling.

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Singh also reportedly said that he had dialled up Swaraj last week to express his disapproval of the abuse she faced online following her ministry’s decision in the Lucknow passport row involving an interfaith couple.

“I called her soon after she first tweeted last week about the abuse she was facing,” The Print quotes Singh as saying.

“When we met, I also asked her what this was all about. I expressed my sympathy,” he said.

Many leaders from the opposition parties expressly supported Swaraj in her lone fight against the trolls, many of whom were BJP loyalists. National Conference leader Omar Abdullah and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee were the latest to condemn the online abuses hurled at the EAM and express concern over the growing menace of trolling.

On Saturday, Swaraj conducted a poll asking Twitter users whether they approved of such hateful comments against her. The results of the poll shocked many with 43 per cent respondents saying ‘yes’.

Read More: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj fights a lone battle against online trolls

Reacting to the poll, Abdullah wrote, “That 43% of almost 120,000 respondents support the vile tweets that have been used to troll @SushmaSwaraj tells its own story of what a miserable place part of the Twitter universe has become. Shame on the trolls & their supporters/apologists.”

 

Earlier today, Banerjee wrote, “Strongly condemn the language used on the social media against @sushmaswaraj Ji . She is a senior politician. We must respect each other and must never indulge in any form of verbal abuse.”

 

On 1 July, the minister’s husband, Swaraj Kaushal, posted an emotional message to a troll who asked him to “beat up” Sushma Swaraj.

“Your words have given us unbearable pain. Just to share with you, my mother died of cancer in 1993. Sushma was an MP and a former Education Minister. She lived in the hospital for a year. She refused to engage a medical attendant and attended on my dying mother personally,” he wrote in his first tweet.

“Such was her devotion to the family. As per my father’s wish, she lit my father’s pyre. We adore her. Please do not use such words for her. We are first generation in law and politics. We pray for nothing more than her life. Pls convey my profound regards to your wife,” Kaushal signed off with his second and final tweet intended for the troll.

MUST READ: Swaraj Kaushal responds to troll who wanted him to ‘beat up’ Sushma Swaraj

Responding to a question on whether the government is mulling action against the trolls, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said last week that the EAM has responded to the trolling “in her own way and in a manner which she deemed fit”.

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