Khushbu Sundar, who jumped ship from Congress to BJP in 2020, had linked all 'Modis' to corruption in a 2018 tweet. She did not delete the post and instead called Congress desperate for using it against her.
BJP leader and National Commission of Women (NCW) chief Khushbu Sundar’s tweet from 2018 over a remark almost identical to what got Congress senior leader Rahul Gandhi disqualified as a Member of Parliament, went viral on Saturday. Sundar, who was a Congress leader at the time, had said in a tweet, “Modi is everywhere…corruption is the surname after every Modi”.
"Yahan #Modi wahan #Modi jahan dekho #Modi..lekin yeh kya?? Har #Modi ke aage #bhrashtachaar surname laga hua hai..toh baat ko no samjho..#Modi mutlab #bhrashtachaar..let's change the meaning of #Modi to corruption..suits better..#Nirav #Lalit #Namo = corruption..," her tweet in Hindi read.
Khushbu Sundar, who jumped ship from Congress to BJP in 2020 and is also the saffron party’s national executive committee member, has not deleted the tweet.
On Friday, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was disqualified over his equating the surname Modi to "thieves", a day after he was convicted and sentenced to two years in jail over the same remark. The Congress was quick to pick on Khushbu's old tweet.
Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh asked PM Narendra Modi via a Twitter post, "Will you make one of your disciples named Modi file a defamation case against Khushbu Sundar too?"
Launching an all-out attack against the Congress for using her tweet to get back at the BJP over Gandhi’s conviction and disqualification, the actor and BJP leader said it exposed how desperate the opposition party was.
"Not only does it show how desperate they (Congress party) are, but it exposes their level of ignorance on the issue they are raking up," she told PTI.
"I have never deleted any of the tweets on my timeline and I will not do so now," Sundar said and asked, "What are the Congress leaders trying to do by picking on me? Are they equating me to Rahul Gandhi?"
Explaining her 2018 tweet, Khushbu added, "I was in Congress party then and I was only performing my duty as the spokesperson of the Congress. This is the language we were supposed to speak and that is exactly what I was doing. I was following the party leader. This is his language."
She said that while she only equated “Modis” with corruption, Gandhi “stooped down to the level calling all Modis as thieves”
“The Congress party is incapable of seeing the difference. But if they have the guts, I challenge the Congress leaders to file a case against me and I will face them legally," she said.