External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday posted several tweets in a bid to respond to Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy over the cost of rescuing people from Kerala, stranded in hostile regions such as Iraq and Libya.
Swaraj, who’s undergoing treatment at Delhi’s AIIMS, tweeted, “Mr.Chandy – We evacuated thousands of Indians from Kerala from Iraq, Libya and Yemen. Who paid for them ? Mr.Chandy – You said ‘Kerala paid for 29 Indians evacuated from Libya.’ Mr.Chandy – You started this debate – as to Who paid ? Not me. We always did this because this is our pious duty towards our citizens.”
Mr.Chandy – We evacuated thousands of Indians from Kerala from Iraq, Libya and Yemen. Who paid for them ?
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 12, 2016
Mr.Chandy – You said 'Kerala paid for 29 Indians evacuated from Libya.'
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 12, 2016
Mr.Chandy – You started this debate – as to Who paid ? Not me. We always did this because this is our pious duty towards our citizens.
— Sushma Swaraj (@SushmaSwaraj) May 12, 2016
Swaraj’s tweets were believed to be in response to comments made by Chandy, who was recently furious with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for crediting his own government for bringing back the Indians from Libya.
Moments later, Chandy posted this tweet;
Safe return of families from Libya pic.twitter.com/pxpcKvqbua
— Oommen Chandy (@Oommen_Chandy) May 12, 2016
This new controversy came a day after Modi was trolled on twitter for describing Kerala worse than Somalia in terms of infant mortality among Scheduled Tribes.
However, Swaraj’s comments haven’t gone down well with a large section of social media users, many of whom were incensed with the use of ‘We’ in “We evacuated thousands of Indians.”
Kerala goes to crucial assembly elections and the BJP, Swaraj’s party, is making desperate attempts to make inroads in the south Indian state.
Here are some of the comments by Facebook and Twitter users:
Is Kerala a neighbouring country to India? It is the duty of the govt and it is paid by tax paying citizens of India.
— Joseph Varughese (@Josephkv9) May 12, 2016
https://twitter.com/AlankarTweets/status/730713536884817920
All Indians paid for that, as they should, @SushmaSwaraj. Such language befits some of your colleagues, not you. https://t.co/oDCdFAZYcd
— Salil Tripathi سلیل تریپاٹھی સલિલ ત્રિપાઠી (@saliltripathi) May 12, 2016
Did @SushmaSwaraj jus imagine d map of india without kerala in it ?
I guess thats a punishable offense?@nskathy pic.twitter.com/eMbgTiInQ4— Vinay Kumar Dokania (@VinayDokania) May 12, 2016
Dear @SushmaSwaraj with due respect, we hired u to do a job & we paid money for u to do it.
U did no one a favour, nor spent ur own money— ??????????? ???? (@priyashmita) May 12, 2016
Your job, @SushmaSwaraj & paid from taxpayers' money not ur pocket. Why are you hiding info on 29 Indians in Iraq? pic.twitter.com/KRBTv2C7i5
— Gaurav Pandhi गौरव पांधी (@GauravPandhi) May 12, 2016