Bedi deleted her tweet after being criticised for seeking votes for the BJP.
New Delhi: Lieutenant governor of Puducherry, Kiran Bedi, waded into a controversy on Monday by tweeting a news story about the Bhartiya Janata Party releasing its election manifesto for the upcoming polls to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and urging voters to “rescue Delhi” – a thinly veiled appeal to vote against the Aam Aadmi Party, which controls the Delhi state government, and for the BJP, the party she represented in her failed attempt to become chief minister of the Capital in 2015.
“Please rescue Delhi”, her tweet said. “It’s now or suffer more. No more. Delhi at peace with itself. A civil Delhi not crude…!”
When several people reminded her on Twitter that she was lieutenant governor of another state and also a constitutional authority and should therefore refrain from making such statements, Bedi deleted her tweet.
Asked by The Wire for the reason she deleted the tweet, Bedi said she had only “improved it”.
“In the following tweets, if you see, [they are] more explained, more detailed, see the latest ones,” she told The Wire.
Am campaigning for none.
But campaigning for a capital of India which be 'at work not war'.
One which promotes selfreliance not dependency https://t.co/y4lQfoSdug— Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) April 17, 2017
In a message to The Wire, she said, “Here is my latest. I have seen Delhi all my life. It needs to return to peace and civilised behaviour. It needs its creativity back. It’s celebrations as were…”
She called upon the city’s electorate to “look at the larger picture” as they vote in the municipal elections on April 23.
Delhi stinks. Delhi is jammed. Delhi is shrill. Delhi is at war not work..Pl put it back to work friends. It's our Rajdhani.
Its NOW..— Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) April 16, 2017
Play your role. Fulfil your responsibility. Rise above small gains. Look at the larger picture. Delhi is the crown of India. https://t.co/rxp6j3SYGO
— Kiran Bedi (@thekiranbedi) April 16, 2017
Many of Bedi’s critics were quick to troll her by pointing out that her tweets on the state of affairs in Delhi were actually an indictment of the BJP, which has controlled Delhi’s municipal corporations for the last ten years.
Can't understand the outrage over Kiran Bedi's tweet. She's merely asking people to vote out BJP from MCD pic.twitter.com/sIQKvEaQIa
— Aditya Menon (@AdityaMenon22) April 17, 2017
“When people are going to vote next Sunday for her to tell them that Delhi is in such a bad shape, is precisely what we have been saying about the performance of the BJP,” Swaraj India spokesman Anupam said.
“What she has tweeted is a common concern for all residents of Delhi and these are the real issues. The promises made by the BJP in its manifesto about Rs 10 meals and not increasing taxes is not something which concerns us all – the real issues are sanitation, cleanliness, garbage, pollution and public health and epidemics,” said Anupam, adding that the fact that municipal corporations has been run by BJP over the last ten years now raises the question of whether there is a rebellion within the ranks of the party.
Delhi BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma insisted there was nothing wrong with Bedi’s tweets. “As long as she is not actively campaigning for a party or telling people to go out and vote for some party, I don’t see anything legally wrong with her tweets.”
Even her reference to Swachh Delhi, she said, was a reference to a national mission and not an appeal to voters to vote for a particular party.