Union Minister Sushma Swaraj who heads the Ministry of External Affairs was in the midst of a controversy following backlash from social media users. The backlash against Sushma Swaraj started after controversial transfer of regional passport officer Vikas Mishra over an alleged refusal to hand over passport to an inter faith couple. The allegations against the officer were found to be untrue and he was simply discharging his duties and doing due diligence before issuing the passport. Home Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday spoke to the press on the sidelines of a function and stated that the abuses directed towards Sushma were “wrong”. Mr. Rajnath Singh said, “In my opinion, it is wrong,” and declined to offer any more explanations. The mainstream media was quick to pick this up and portray this as a possible rift in the BJP. Left leaning cabal jumped up in glee as they tried to showcase Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj in a different light from the other BJP leaders. This is not the first time something of this characteristic has been planned by the media. They had tried to do the same prior to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections as well and had failed back then too. Their plan is to simply divide the BJP supporters by playing up the imaginary rift among the leaders of the party itself.
The whole case started when a woman named Tanvi Seth alleged that a passport officer by the name of Vikas Mishra refused to issue her passport because she had married a Muslim. While Vikas Mishra stated that the issue was over the alleged discrepancies in her name on the marriage certificate and the documents required for the passport. She also complained that the officer insulted her and her husband, Muhammad Anas Siddiqui, and allegedly asked him to convert (or reconvert) for receiving the passport. The media that is constantly looking for such spicy scoops gave the case a deliberate communal twist.
Sushma Swaraj led MEA lost no time in transferring the said officer and opening an internal enquiry while she handed over the passport to Tanvi Seth. However, it soon came out that there was more to the case than what meets the eyes, it soon became clear that Tanvi Seth was denied a passport not on the grounds that her husband was a Muslim, but because her name as per the required documents, and the name in the Nikaahnama [marriage certificate] were completely different. She applied for a passport in the name of her former name ‘Tanvi Seth’, while her actual name as of now is ‘Shadia Anas Siddiqui’. Worse, the new passport was handed over without any police verification, and was delivered directly to her instead of being sent by post, overriding the official norms. The backlash which followed against Sushma Swaraj was for minority appeasement and for going head over heels in order to please them. Transferring Officer Vikas Mishra who was just doing his duty too infuriated the people.
Rajnath Singh has done nothing unusual by calling out the attacks and trolls who abused Sushma Swaraj on social media. He also mentioned that criticism is always welcome but it should not be abusive in nature. The media tried to show this as a case of possible rift between the BJP leaders who were yet to speak about the issue on the public platform when leaders from the opposition like Mamata Banerjee and Rahul Gandhi had shown their support for the minister.
Sources also said that Mr. Singh had reached out to Sushma Swaraj and told her that she should have ignored the abusive tweets. This failed attempt by the media to portray a difference in the BJP leadership is utterly malicious in nature. The central government leaders from PM Modi to the other MPs do not need to use Twitter to show solidarity with Sushma Swaraj, a simple phone call is all it takes. As the elections approach there might be a spike in rumours like these where the media tries to show a division in the camps of BJP, it is up to us to separate truth from propaganda. The BJP is still going strong and is ready to sweep the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well. The fake news peddling is a weak attempt to thwart the advance of BJP.
In the desperate attempt to show a rift and more importantly a sort of rebuke to the social media users who had criticized Swaraj’s hasty decision on the Tanvi Seth issue, the media deliberately distorted Rajnath’s statement to show that he had come out strongly against those who had criticized Sushma and whom media had termed as ‘trolls’. In doing so, the media conveniently ignored the advice that Rajnath gave to Sushma Swaraj that she should ignore the abusive trolls. This is exactly what the genuine critics of Sushma Swaraj’s hasty decision were saying all along.
