Digvijay retweets derogatory remark on PM, says not endorsement

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Friday retweeted a derogatory remark on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but later said he did not endorse it after controversy erupted.

"Retweets are never endorsements. This is the basic principle of Twitter," Digvijay Singh told reporters here.

A few hours earlier, Digvijay had retweeted a picture of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with some highly derogatory text.

Digvijay Singh shared the tweet with a disclaimer: "Not mine but couldn't help posting it. My apologies to the person concerned. He is the best in the 'Art of Fooling!'"

After it triggered a controversy, the Congress leader said that the words used by him - "He is the best in the 'Art of Fooling'" -- are "not derogatory".

He asked mediapersons as to why they were not questioning the Prime Minister who "did not tweet a word of condemnation on journalist Gauri Lankesh's murder".

"Does Modiji, who tweets on even very trivial things, not have time to write a word in condemnation of that lady's murder who, much like her illustrious father, fought all her life against the people who are spreading poison of communalism in our society?" Singh said.

He also demanded to know why Modi had not "unfollowed" four people who used abusive language against Lankesh after her murder.

Singh insisted that he had not used any unparliamentary word against anyone in his tweets, neither did any of his followers.

--IANS

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