Priyanka Gandhi hits back at UP govt’s “threats” against her

Last updated on February 14th, 2023 at 11:32 am

The Congress General Secretary in-charge of UP East declared on Twitter that it was her duty to speak the truth and that she was “the granddaughter of Indira Gandhi”.

Priyanka Gandhi grabbed headlines with her dare to the Uttar Pradesh government which she claimed was targeting her through various departments. Tweeting in Hindi, she said that they could do what they want but she would do her duty of putting forth the truth. Her duty was not to toe the government line, she said, declaring that she was the granddaughter of Indira Gandhi and not some undeclared spokesperson of the BJP like some of the opposition leaders.

Curiously the remarks came just a day after the 45th anniversary of the Emergency when former minister Indira Gandhi suspended democracy for two years. The BJP used this opportunity to attack the Congress which has been speaking about the erosion of democratic values under the current government.

The spat started when Priyanka Gandhi wrote a Facebook post which quoted a media report saying 57 girls had tested positive for coronavirus at a state-run children’s shelter in Kanpur. The report also said that two of the girls were found pregnant with one of them HIV positive. The state said her post was misleading and the state child rights panel issued her a notice, asking for her reply.

Earlier, she had tweeted, again citing a news report, that 28 people with coronavirus had died in an Agra hospital within 48 hours of being admitted. This exposed the much-touted Agra model as mere propaganda, she said. The Agra district magistrate responded to the tweet by asking her to withdraw it. Gandhi shot back at him talking about the high COVID-19 mortality rate in Agra, which was greater than Delhi or Mumbai.

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