New Delhi: Sharmistha Mukherjee, former Congress leader and daughter of former president Pranab Mukherjee, has written to Rahul Gandhi claiming that his supporters subjected her and her late father to “vicious and continuous trolling” on social media after the release of her book ‘Pranab My Father: A Daughter Remembers’.
“The book contains some observations about you made in my father’s diaries which are not very complimentary. However, as you seem to be a torchbearer of freedom of expression, you should know that FoE (freedom of expression) involves not just praising someone, but also the ability to tolerate criticism gracefully. But you seem to have failed miserably to convince even your own followers of one of the most crucial rights granted by our Constitution, which is also one of the core values of Congress,” Sharmistha wrote in her letter to the Congress MP, which she made public Friday.
She added, “Your favourite slogan of ‘Nafrat ke Bazaar me Mohabbat ki Dukan’ also seems to fall on deaf ears of your own followers as they unleash all their ‘Nafrat’ on anyone daring to criticise you.”
The former party leader also mentioned that a particular X user, Naveen Shahi, “followed by several senior Congress leaders like Pawan Khera, Ajay Maken, Srinivas BV and many other verified handles from INC Social Media dept” abused her father and her “in such vile language that I feel nausea even to repeat it”.
Referring to Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, she wrote, “You are talking about Nyay (justice). As an ordinary citizen of India, I demand Nyay from you as these vile abuses seem to have originated with someone having a formal or informal association with your organisation. I demand Nyay as a woman, who herself, and whose father (leaving aside the fact that he was a former President of India) have been subjected to character assassination and the most vile abuses having sexual connotations.”
Sharmistha further wrote that while she acknowledges that the freedom of expression also means the right to criticise her, it doesn’t give anyone any liberty to verbally abuse someone using foul language. “But as you publicly claim to be the ‘upholder’ of tolerance and liberal values of Congress, (I) decided to bring to your notice the behaviour of your followers in case you haven’t noticed it as yet.”
She alleged that “all hell has broken loose” after she made some comments at the Jaipur Literature Festival held last weekend. At the event, she had criticised Gandhi’s leadership, the Congress’s defeats in the last two Lok Sabha polls. She’d further said that “it’s time to move on and look for fresh leadership” beyond the Gandhi family.
“Since then, all hell has broken loose because in your followers’ mind (sic), you and your family are synonymous with Congress without realising that Congress was and is far greater than any individual or a family,” she wrote in her letter to Gandhi, adding that since then, “the father and daughter have been subjected to vicious trolling by Congress supporters, sometimes using the nastiest language”.
In her letter, Sharmistha claimed that according to Rahul Gandhi’s “followers”, Pranab Mukherjee’s family should be thankful to the Gandhi clan for what he has earned “without any merit”.
“If your followers believe, and if you too want to create the impression that Congress is nothing but a personal zamindari of the Gandhi-Nehru family; and the positions are doled out on the whims and fancies of your family just like the feudal lords, expecting in return servitude for generations, you are welcome to your ideas of what Congress is or should be, though I don’t abide by it. Perhaps that is what Congress has become now, and your followers are welcome to go on believing your feudal lord status,” she wrote.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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