BJP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy has gone up against his own party's IT cell and its in-charge Amit Malviya, as he called for the latter's removal by Thursday, 10 September.
"By tomorrow If Malaviya is not removed from BJP IT cell (which is my five villages compromise proposal to Nadda) it means the party brass does not want to defend me. Since there is no forum in the party where I can ask for cadre opinion, hence I will have to defend myself," Swamy tweeted on Wednesday.
‘Running Riot With Filth’
Two days back, Swamy had tweeted saying that "the BJP IT cell has gone rogue", with some of its members putting out fake ID tweets to make "personal attacks" on him.
"If my angered followers make counter personal attacks I cannot be held responsible just as BJP cannot be held responsible for the rogue IT cell of the party [sic]," he had posted. However, it is not clear which tweets he was referring to.
In response to a user's tweet calling for ignoring the IT cell members, Swamy said, "I am ignoring but BJP must sack them. One Malaviya character is running riot with filth. We are a party of maryada purushottam not of Ravan or Dushasan."
Swamy’s Position at Variance With Party?
In recent days, Swamy’s position on certain issues, such as the NEET and JEE exams, has been at variance with that of the government and the party. In August, he had written to PM Narendra Modi urging him to postpone NEET-JEE and other similar entrance exams to after Diwali, owing to the COVID-19 situation in the country.
However, the government was firm on holding the exams in September itself, with JEE already being held and NEET scheduled to be held on 13 September.
Then on Tuesday, he questioned why External Affairs Ministers S Jaishankar would have to meet his Chinese counterpart in Moscow, amid escalating tensions between India and China along the LAC in Ladakh. "... Especially after the Defence Ministers have met? India has no foreign policy issues to settle since may 5, 2020. Therefore PM must ask the EAM to cancel his trip. It dilutes our resolve [sic],” he had tweeted.
Criticism on Economy
Through much of PM Modi's previous and current tenure, Swamy has consistently criticised those at the helm of managing the country's economic affairs.
Regarding incumbent Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Swamy had said last year that she "doesn't know any economics". During Modi's first term, his ire used to be directed at the then finance minister Arun Jaitley, erstwhile chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian and the then finance secretary Shaktikanta Das.
Some of his sharpest barbs were directed at Jaitley. On one occasion, Swamy said he doesn’t understand what language Jaitley speaks and that it’s “certainly not economics.”
But Swamy's criticism has gone beyond economic affairs as well. During the migrant crisis earlier this year, he called the Railway Ministry "moronic" for allegedly charging steep fares from returning migrants.
Swamy was also critical of senior officials in the PMO during Modi's first term and publicly called them a "gang of four."
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