Spoke the then leader's language: Khushbu on old Modi tweet

Targeted by the Congress over her 2018 tweet criticial of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP leader Khushbu Sundar on Saturday hit back at the opposition party saying she was speaking the "language of the leader" then as she was told to do so and questioned its 'desperation.'

She has not deleted the five year-old social media post and will not do so now, she said.

Congress picking on her in the wake of party leader Rahul Gandhi's Modi surname remarks that led to a Surat local court convicting him and him being disqualified as a Lok Sabha member, Sundar said it exposed how desperate the opposition party was.

The 2018 tweet of the National Commission for Women member has gone viral and she has not deleted the post.

Sundar, also BJP national executive committee member who had quit the Congress party and joined the saffron organisation in 2020 had posted a tweet in 2018 saying "...Let's change the meaning of #Modi to corruption..suits better."

Explaining the tweet, Khushbu said "I was in Congress party then and I was only performing my duty as the spokesperson of the Congress. This is the language we were supposed to speak and that is exactly what I was doing. I was following the party leader. This is his language."

"Not only does it show how desperate they (Congress party) are, but it exposes their level of ignorance on the issue they are raking up," she told PTI.

In the wake of Rahul Gandhi's disqualification over his equating the surname Modi to "thieves" the party was quick to pick on Khushbu's old tweet.

Party leader and Rajya Sabha MP Digvijaya Singh asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi via a Twitter post on Saturday morning, "will you make one of your disciples named Modi file a defamation case against Khushbu Sundar too?"

"I have never deleted any of the tweets on my timeline and I will not do so now," Sundar said.

She asked "what are the Congress leaders trying to do by picking on me? Are they equating me to Rahul Gandhi?"

Asked if she saw nothing wrong in insulting the 'Modi' surname, she said, "Rahul Gandhi has stooped down to the level calling all Modis as thieves, I have only used the term 'Corruption'. The Congress party is incapable of seeing the difference. But if they have the guts, I challenge the Congress leaders to file a case against me and I will face them legally."

Sundar also pointed out that the Congress Party never liked her appreciating the positive steps taken by the ruling BJP. "Whether it was the Triple Talaq, Abrogation of Article 370 or the launch of the New Education Policy (NEP), the Congress party always had a problem when I tweeted appreciations," she recalled.

An actor who has acted in over 100 films, Khushbu Sundar initially joined the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and then switched over to the Congress party before joining the BJP.