NEW DELHI, July 24: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader and author Ratan Sharda, on Wednesday strongly criticised the BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya for trolling social media users who were critical of the union budget presented in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Terming it a “serious problem”, Mr Sharda, who is also a columnist in the RSS’ English mouthpiece Organiser, said the IT cell should instead focus on simplifying the government’s schemes for citizens who can benefit instead of spending time in attacking the ruling party’s critics.
In a post on X, Mr Sharda, who after the Lok Sabha elections results last month had written in the Organiser that the results of Lok Sabha poll-2024 have come as a reality check for “overconfident” BJP, said, “This attitude of BJP IT Cell is a serious problem. Instead of coming up with simplified communication about good points of #Budget2024, he ends up trolling citizens. Answer their fear, don’t insult them dear Amit Malviya,” Mr Sharda wrote.
Mr Malviya had called out those complaining about the Union government’s decision to eliminate indexation in property sales. “Everyone is an indexation specialist tonight,” Mr Malviya wrote in a post which he deleted after Mr Sharda and a number of other BJP sympathisers countered him.
After Mr Malviya deleted his post, Mr Sharda commented again, saying, “It seems Amit Malviya has deleted the tweet. Let better senses prevail.” Mr Sharda, a life-long member of the Sangh, has written several books on the RSS. In a piece in the Organiser written after the recent Lok Sabha election, he openly called out the BJP’s “arrogance” and “ego” as the prime reasons for its losses in several seats.
The RSS, however, maintained that Mr Sharda’s articles expressed his personal opinion and did not reflect the views of the Sangh or its affiliated organisations.
(Manas Dasgupta)
