The Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT cell head, CTR Nirmal Kumar, on Sunday posted a photo of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sitting with a young woman on his official Twitter page and posted a tweet in Tamil stating, “குழந்தைகளுடன் மருதாணி வைத்து விளையாடும் இந்த #pappu-வை கூட்டிக்கொண்டு யாத்திரை போகும் அந்த 10 பேரை நினைத்தால் தான் பாவமாக இருக்கிறது…”
When translated, it said, “It’s a sin to think of those 10 people who go on a pilgrimage with these #pappu ‘s playing henna with children…”
Fact checker and journalist Mohammed Zubair tweeted about the matter and said that the BJP leader shared an old and affectionate picture of Rahul Gandhi with his niece Miraya Vadra with a claim that he’s flirting with young children.
Zubair further recognized the young woman as Miraya Vadra, daughter of Rahul’s sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Priyanka Gandhi has two children – a daughter and a son (Raihan Vadra).
The BJP leader soon went into defense and tried to explain or rather translate his tweet. Tagging Zubair, he blamed the latter for spreading ‘fake news’.
However, netizens did not take Kumar’s tweet kindly.
After facing backlash, Kumar deleted the tweet. He later posted another tweet stating he was misunderstood.
