Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday, 11 March, kicked up a controversy after he referred to Jaish-e-Mohammed founder Masood Azhar as "Azharji" while addressing party workers in New Delhi. Attacking Gandhi, the Bharatiya Janta Party alleged that Congress "loves terrorists."
In retaliation, Congress Sevadal's official Twitter handle released a clip featuring Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, in which the BJP leader purportedly addresses Lashkar-e-Taiba's Hafiz Saeed as "Hafizji."
The video was picked up by other Congress supporters on Twitter. A user also shared a video of BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi, in which he can be heard saying "Shri Hafiz Saeed."
BJP Launches Fresh Salvo Over ‘Azharji’ Quip
While addressing booth presidents in New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Stadium on Monday, Gandhi hit out at National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval and said, "Over 40 security personnel died in the Pulwama terrorist attack in Kashmir for which the responsibility was owned up by Pakistani terrorist outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed.”
"It may be recalled that the chief of Jaish, Masood Azharji, who was in an Indian jail, was taken to Kandahar by NSA chief Ajit Doval during the previous BJP government, and set him free," the Congress chief said.
Soon after, BJP attacked Gandhi over his “reverence” for JeM chief Azhar, with Union Minister Smriti Irani wrote on Twitter:
Incidentally, Ravi Shankar Prasad had also lashed out at Gandhi over the “Azharji” remark.
Union Minister Giriraj Singh too slammed the Congress president for calling the wanted terrorist 'ji' – which is used in Hindi as a mark of respect for an individual.
Complaint Lodged Against Irani at EC For Calling Rahul ‘Terrorist Sympathiser’
Meanwhile, former BJP campaign worker Shivam Shankar Singh said he has filed a complaint with the Election Commission over Irani allegedly "violating the model code of conduct."
Singh claimed that Irani had not only violated the code of conduct by calling Gandhi a "terrorist sympathiser" but the “edited clip” she had posted in the same tweet could be "deemed as spreading fake news."
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