The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday claimed before a local court in Delhi that the middleman in the AgustaWestland case, Christian Michel, had named one ‘Mrs Gandhi’ in the chopper bribery scam. The members of the BJP IT Cell were quick to attack Sonia Gandhi by trending the hashtag #MrsGandhiChorHai on Twitter.
Malviya said, “I would make a quick two points here. One, KJP Alphons, the lawyer of Christian Michel is the legal head of the Congress’ Youth wing.” Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Hegde interrupted to correct him and said that ‘KJ Alphons is your Tourism Minister.” Far from being thankful to Hegde, Malviya expressed his displeasure at being interrupted and said, “Please do not interject. I have heard you and I don’t need comments from you.
Hegde politely replied, “I am only correcting you on facts. KJ Alphons is your Tourism Minister.” Once again, Malviya was in no mood to listen as he continued, “Please allow me to complete.” He then went on to make his remaining argument. (Watch the video below from 26.30 mins onwards)
Hegde took to Twitter to inform his followers about Malviya’s gaffe. He wrote, “Amit Malaviya on @CNNnews18 called @KJAlphons as Christian Michael ‘s lawyer. Congratulations Mr Alphonso on joining the profession.”
Amit Malaviya on @CNNnews18 called @KJAlphons as Christian Michael ‘s lawyer. Congratulations Mr Alphonso on joining the profession
— SANJAY HEGDE (@sanjayuvacha) December 29, 2018
While KJ Alphons is the cabinet colleague of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and holds the tourism portfolio, the gentleman that Malviya was referring to is Aljo K Joseph. He was expelled from the Congress after it emerged that he was representing Michel.
BJP’s IT Cell head confidently announcing his own party’s union minister as the lawyer of Michel on LIVE TV left social media users in splits.
An aloo to Sona moment for @amitmalviya
— Kaushik Vedula (@VedulaKaushik) December 29, 2018
@amitmalviya : #KJAlphons is the legal head of ….. @sanjayuvacha : #KJAlphons is ur tourism minister
* LIVE #FactChecking * on @CNNnews18
??????— Aiyappa CG (@yaps9) December 29, 2018
So @amitmalviya says to @maryashakil that KJ Alphons is the counsel of Mitchel. @sanjayuvacha tried to correct him but he didn’t choose to stand corrected.
— The Pankh (@TPankh) December 29, 2018
This is not the first time that Malviya has had to face embarrassment because of a public gaffe. In the past, he had repeatedly referred to public infrastructure as ‘pubic’ infrastructure and Modi’s public relations as ‘pubic’ relations.
So it’s @amitmalviya who handles @narendramodi‘s account. pic.twitter.com/KehJ2i9rUP
— Supariman™ (@SupariMan_) December 30, 2018
Not so long ago, BJP President Amit Shah had to face ridicule after he referred to his own spokesperson Sambit Patra as Sandeep Patra.