“Dear BJP, do not fear”—Rahul Gandhi mocks BJP’s complaint to EC

A fortnight can be a very long time in politics. On January 2 at the BJP’s Lucknow rally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may well have tried to write off the Congress as a “non-entity” in Uttar Pradesh and taken a swipe or two at Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi—though without naming him. However, the BJP now appears jittery, just a day after the Election Commission gave the Akhilesh Yadav faction of Samajwadi Party the right to the party name and cycle symbol, and Samajwadi’s alliance with the Congress for the Uttar Pradesh polls was announced.

A BJP delegation on Tuesday rushed to the EC demanding “action” against Rahul Gandhi and to “suspend or withdraw” recognition to the Indian National Congress for his remarks at the party’s ‘Jan Vedna’ conclave on January 11 in New Delhi. The delegation led by Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar contended that Gandhi “violated” the model code of conduct by allegedly “co-relating” the Congress’ hand symbol with “religious Gods”.

However, Rahul Gandhi’s response was one of sarcasm and humour. He tweeted: ‘Dear BJP, डरो मत’ (do not fear).

In no time, the hashtag #DearBJP_डरो_मत began trending on Twitter.

With this response, Gandhi also repeated the distinction he drew between the BJP and the Congress at the Jan Vedna Sammelan, where he had said that while the BJP played the politics of “instilling and spreading fear,” the Congress’ philosophy was of spreading the message “do not fear”.

While the BJP’s complaint to the Election Commission may betray that it is not taking the Congress challenge lightly any more, there is one person in the BJP who perhaps wouldn’t complain about Rahul Gandhi’s latest tongue-in-cheek tweet at his party’s expense: