New Delhi: Days after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was trolled over the passport row involving a Hindu-Muslim couple, cabinet colleague Nitin Gadkari came to her defence, saying the decision taken in the case wasn’t wrong.
In one of the strongest defences yet for Sushma Swaraj, Gadkari called the incident unfortunate. “She wasn’t even present in the country when this decision was taken. She has no connection with it & the decision isn't wrong either,” he added.
Gadkari is the second minister from the BJP to have spoken in support of Sushma. On Monday, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that the Twitter trolling was “wrong”. However, when asked if he advised action against those who are targeting the minister, he kept mum. Several other political leaders, including Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah, and Rahul Gandhi, have come out in support of the foreign minister.
Late last month, an inter-faith couple who had applied for their passports in Lucknow were allegedly humiliated and shamed by a passport officer before he rejected their application. The couple later tweeted their ordeal to Union Minister Sushma Swaraj and the Prime Minister’s Office and sought their intervention. A day after they tweeted their ordeal, accused officer Vikas Mishra was transferred to Gorakhpur and passports were issued to them.
While the incident was being unfolded in Lucknow, Swaraj was on an official tour in Europe. The minister had taken it on the chin and retweeted some of the tweets that were even abusive and communal in nature. She also posted a poll asking Twitterati if they approved of such posts. The tweets threatened and abused her. Her husband and former Mizoram governor, Swaraj Kaushal, too, was subject to tweets that told him “to beat up his wife”.
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