NEW DELHI: Though she was attacked on Twitter with harsh words by a netizen, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj responded by offering to help that person.
“Thanks for your compliments. My office will get in touch with you today and help you get the passport,” Swaraj said on Twitter April 1 in reply to a person who criticized her saying that she was “not a chowkidar” and how he lost a career opportunity because he did not get his passport on time.
Swaraj also tagged a tweet by her additional private secretary in which that person was told that he applied for a normal passport March 13 without proper address proof and he submitted the address proof March 20.
“The PSK Andheri sent the application for police verification. The police report is awaited,” it said.
Later, the tweet by the man and his Twitter account were unavailable.
Swaraj has been having Twitter exchanges with users in the last few days over her prefixing ‘chowkidar’ to her name on Twitter account.
On March 30, when a Twitter user suggested that it is not Swaraj, but some “PR guy” tweeting for her, she responded saying: “Rest assured – it’s me, not my ghost.”
Also last month, when asked by a Twitter user why she, being the foreign minister and the “most sensible” BJP leader, had added the ‘chowkidar’ prefix to her name on the micro blogging site, Swaraj tweeted, “Because I am doing Chowkidari of Indian interests and Indian nationals abroad.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the “Main Bhi Chowkidar” (I too am a watchman) campaign to blunt the Congress’s “Chowkidar Chor Hai” (the watchman is a thief) jibe at him.
He had prefixed his Twitter handle with ‘chowkidar’ and almost all BJP leaders and Union ministers including Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and Nirmala Sitharaman followed suit.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi has been targeting Modi over alleged irregularities in the Rafale fighter jet deal. He has often used the “Chowkidar Chor Hai” slogan while accusing the Prime Minister of wrongdoings in the deal. PTI
