Sambit Patra (file photo)
New Delhi: The national spokesperson of the BJP, Sambit Patra posted a picture of Rahul Gandhi holding the hand of a hijab-clad girl during his Bharat Jodo Yatra on social media and described it communal and appeasement.
Patra's post, however, did not go well with some netizens, who despised his communally sick thought and for seeing religion even in a little girl.
Taking to Twitter, Patra wrote in Hindi "When votes are "accounted" for on religious grounds...then it is called appeasement..."
Responding to the BJP spokesperson's tweet, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said he did not even spare a little girl.
"Sambit, I have never seen a more inferior and fallen person. It's one thing to be rattled by the huge crowds in the (Bharat Jodo) Yatra - but to be blinded by hate like this. You are the pits!" she wrote.
Responding to Shrinate's tweet, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "Worse than the pits."
Indian Youth Congress leader Srinivas BV replied to Sambit's post with a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a mosque, interacting with Islamic religious leaders there. Journalist and fact-checker Mohammed Zubair also replied with a collage of pictures of Rahul Gandhi meeting children from different religions and across ages during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, with the caption 'Religious basis?".
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor also responded to the matter, saying, Is there no low to which BJP spokesmen won't sink? She is a little child & too young to be part of any vote bank: please spare her from your small-mindedness! What @RahulGandhi is doing is a simple decent gesture towards a kid. BJP, learn to look beyond people's faith; we do.
The Congress, meanwhile, has accused the BJP of resorting to disinformation and falsehood on the 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' and said it shows the "fear" and "frustration" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP leadership at the success of the yatra.