Nirmala Sitharaman’s reaction to Devdutt Pattanaik’s suggestion that Subramanian Swamy should replace her baffles Twitterati

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Nirmala Sitharaman was recently seen getting provoked to the extent that she found herself drawn into reacting to a seemingly innocuous tweet posted by author Devdutt Pattanaik. As expected, Sitharaman’s reaction to Devdutt Pattanaik’s suggestion that BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy should replace her as the country’s finance minister left Twitterati baffled.

Nirmala Sitharaman

Taking to Twitter, Pattanaik had written arguing in favour of launching a campaign to see Swamy replace Sitharaman as the next finance minister. He wrote, “Remember the movement to get Kalam ji a second term? Can we start a campaign to get Dr. Subramaniam swami ( who actually knows economics) as finance minister? Why is he being ignored? Court conspiracy?” Pattanaik also tagged two right-wing propaganda portals Swarajya and OpIndia and mockingly asked if these two pro-Hindutva platforms, known for peddling fake news, were ‘up to this dharmik task?’

Pattanaik also used an illustration of Sitharaman in Hindu Goddes Laxmi’s avatar, as she was widely dubbed by pro-government TV channels just before she presented her maiden budget in July this year.



Pattanaik did not stop here. His subsequent tweet taking a dig at the finance minister’s image as Goddes Laxmi read, “This picture is really really Bad Vaastu for economy. Madam should have NEVER allowed it. But who cares for opinions of lowly people like me who actually read the scriptures? Again apologies for crossing line.”



Sitharaman could not resist her urge and reacted to Pattanaik’s tweet aimed at her. She wrote, “???”



Many were left baffled as to why a country’s finance minister will respond to an innocuous tweet posted by a celebrated author. Others argued that only if Sitharaman had cared to respond to ordinary Twitter users’ concerns about the economy, India may have avoided a prolonged economic slowdown.









On Monday, Sitharaman’s husband had written a hard-hitting piece in The Hindu newspaper asking the central government to embrace the economic legacy of former Prime Ministers Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh.

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