How Divya Spandana riled Omar Abdullah enough to lash out at the Congress
On Thursday evening, National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah lashed out at the Congress for bringing down the level of political discourse.
In a tweet, Abdullah fumed at the Congress for making personal attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying such attacks only work to Modi’s advantage.
Attacks that are seen to be against the PM’s person as opposed to his policies & performance actually play to Mr Modi’s advantage. I’m not sure the people making these attacks even realise this at all. Not to mention bringing down the general level of discourse.
— Omar Abdullah (@OmarAbdullah) November 1, 2018
What apparently triggered Abdullah was a tweet by Congress IT cell chief Divya Spandana, in which she takes a dig at Modi.
Is that bird dropping? pic.twitter.com/63xPuvfvW3
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) November 1, 2018
The tweet has been widely condemned on social media for being in bad taste.
Spandana then got into arguments with some people who criticised her for her tweet.
When you’re done huffing & puffing take a breath & hold a mirror to yourselves. My views are mine. I don’t give two hoots about yours. I’m not going to clarify what I meant and what I didn’t cos you don’t deserve one.
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) November 1, 2018
Now they piggyback on him. Hilarious. Apologise for what Rajdeep? For having a sense of humour or for others not having it? Journalists should seriously focus on pressing issues and stop being sermonisers- https://t.co/Njzms26WdG
— Divya Spandana/Ramya (@divyaspandana) November 1, 2018
Spandana also took on NDTV journalist Nidhi Razdan who tried to tell it wasn’t appropriate for her to make such comments because she occupied an official position in the Congress party.
Actually you can’t afford to take that position. You are a public figure, you represent a political party with an official designation. So the people of India DO deserve to know what you meant https://t.co/gELDg8Bgyn
— Nidhi Razdan (@Nidhi) November 1, 2018
This is, however, not the first time that Spandana has faced flak for taking the fight directly to the PM’s doors by lowering the level of discourse.
According to sources quoted by NDTV, the IT cell chief reportedly came in the eye of a storm recently after Congress president Rahul Gandhi got miffed with her over her tweets targeting PM Modi.
One such tweet, using the word "chor (thief)" for Modi, landed Spandana in legal trouble after the Uttar Pradesh police filed a sedition case against her. The tweet had a photoshopped image of PM Modi painting the word 'chor' (Hindi for thief) on the forehead of his wax statue.
Lucknow’s Gomti Nagar police station has booked Spandana under Section 67 of The Information Technology (Amendment) Act and sedition (Section 124A) of the Indian Penal Code based on a complaint filed by a Lucknow-based lawyer Syed Rizwan Ahmad on Tuesday.
The leadership was apparently was so miffed with Spandana that there were talks of Spandana's role being handed over to Congress veteran Margaret Alva’s son Nikhil Alva.
Abdullah’s tweet just comes to prove that even Congress supporters and allies are not taking too kindly to the way Spandana has been attacking Modi.
Will the Congress’ IT cell chief course correct?
With the way things have moved so far, it seems unlikely.