Headlines
Congress seeks PM's apology for Madhav's tweets on Ansari
New Delhi, 22 June
The Congress on Monday
accused the ruling BJP of playing divisive politics and sought Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's apology over his party leader Ram Madhav's
tweets about Vice-President Hamid Ansari.
Madhav, a Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) general secretary, had taken a jibe at Ansari's
absence at Yoga Day celebrations. But he later deleted his remarks.
"Prime
minister and BJP general secretary must apologise on this issue.
Vice-President (Hamid Ansari) was not invited due to protocol. It was an
effort to malign him," senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said in a
press conference here.
Former union minister and senior Congress
leader Jairam Ramesh was more critical while saying: "Ram Madhav's
comment shows that polarisation was the intention behind Yoga Day."
"Communal
polarisation is the only thing Modi knows. The obnoxious comments by
Ram Madhav is a deliberate attempt at polarisation," he added.
Earlier
in the day, Union Minister of state for AYUSH Shripad Naik defended the
government's stand on not inviting the vice-president at the maiden
International Yoga Day celebrations at Rajpath.
"We can't invite the vice-president when the prime minister is the chief guest," Naik told reporters.
The
controversy sparked off after tweets from Ram Madhav which questioned
the vice-president's absence from the International Yoga Day
celebrations.
"Two questions. Did RS TV dat runs on tax-payers
money completely blackout Yoga Day event? While President participated
VP gave a miss," Madhav tweeted on Sunday evening, when the government
was celebrating the International Yoga Day event as a success.
However,
in another tweet, Madhav said, "I am informed dat d VP was unwell. I
withdrew my tweet. My apologies because d institution of VP deserves
respect."
Later, Madhav deleted both the tweets.
However,
controversy sparked off after the vice-president's office said that he
was not unwell and, in fact, he was not invited for the yoga programme
in the first place.