JOIN USDelhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti, who drew flak for his controversial raid against the African community, on Monday made another faux pas by tweeting against President Pranab Mukherjee’s remark that “populist anarchy can’t be a substitute for governance”, which was seen as a dig at the AAP.
"If the AAP actions are anarchy, what would the honourable President consider the 1984 and 2002 riots? agitation? Lol a good joke Mr President," Bharti tweeted on Monday.
The minister, however, was quick to delete his comment. Earlier, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had welcomed the President’s warning as a beginning of a healthy debate.
When BJP MLAs were protesting outside Kejriwal’s office at the Delhi Secretariat, demanding that Bharti be sacked, the tweet surfaced as a major embarrassment to the AAP government.
Congress leader Mukul Wasnik said it was not appropriate for Bharti to comment on the President’s speech.
“Does Somnath Bharti’s tweet/delete mean I eat my words?,” wrote Sudha N Bharadwaj. Not long after Bharti deleted his tweet, the Twitterati started talking about the deleted post and shared it.
Bharti’s post was similar to Shekhar Kapur’s tweet on Sunday. "Dear Mr President.
Activism n Anarchy r not the same. Anarchy was 1984 when mobs went on rampage killing Sikhs. Provoked by State n Police." Kejriwal had retweeted the Kapur’s post.
However, on Twitter, retweets are not often viewed as endorsements.
The deleted post was one of the five tweets posted by Bharti on Monday. In two of those tweets, he wrote how women and journalists he met recently approved of his work. He also posted a link where people of his constituency could register their complaints.