Ex-President Pranab Mukherjee’s daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee writes to Rahul Gandhi on abuse by Congress supporter
New Delhi, February 9
Sharmistha Mukherjee, daughter of late President Pranab Mukherjee, has written an open letter to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, drawing his attention to abuses hurled at her and her late father by a Congress supporter who is followed on X by many senior Congress leaders.
“Since the publication of my book, Pranab My Father: A Daughter Remembers, a month back, I and my father have been subjected to vicious trolling by your supporters on social media. The book contains some observations about you made in my father’s diaries which are not very complimentary,” she wrote.
She said being a passionate supporter of freedom of expression, Rahul should take action against those who are abusing her and her father.
“As you seem to be a torchbearer of freedom of expression, you should know that this right involves not just praising someone, but also the ability to tolerate criticism gracefully. But you seem to have failed to convince even your own followers of one of the most crucial rights granted by the Constitution, which is also one of the core values of the Congress. Your favourite slogan ‘Nafrat ke Bazaar me Mohabbat ki Dukan’ seems to fall on deaf ears of your own followers as they unleash all their ‘nafrat’ on anyone daring to criticise you,” she wrote.
Mukherjee took to X to share the picture of her letter to Rahul and screenshots of abusive posts made by one Naveen Shahi, whom she said is a close associate of the Congress.
She wrote, “But every limit was crossed yesterday when one of your alleged supporters having X handle of @Naveen_Kr_Shahi, who is followed by several senior Congress leaders and many other verified handles of INC social media department, abused my father and me in such a vile language that I feel nausea even to repeat it. In a series of tweets, he called me licentious, and repeatedly wrote that Pranab was a ‘c******, a licentious person, insinuating that he was a sexual pervert.”
