Rahul Gandhi Bharat Jodo Yatra: 'Goal' tweet sparks controversy; 'call for violence' says BJP MP T Surya

In its zeal to promote Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra, the Congress party has tweeted one picture showing RSS shorts catching fire. The Congress tweet says: To free the country from shackles of hate and undo the damage done by BJP-RSS. Step by step, we will reach our goal. 145 days more to go.

The visual message of burning RSS shorts appear crass and an effort to "call for violence". "Congress fire burnt Delhi in 1984. Its ecosystem burnt alive 59 karsevaks in Godhra in 2002. They've again given their ecosystem a call for violence. With Rahul Gandhi ‘fighting against Indian State’, Congress ceases to be a party with faith in constitutional means," ANI quoted BJP MP T Surya as saying.

Rahul Gandhi's yatra is getting mired in controversies. First BJP raised the issue of the price of Rahul Gandhi's T-shirt and later BJP questioned Rahul's effort to Bharat Jodo (unite India) by wearing a foreign-made T-shirt. Congress slammed BJP for 'running away from real issues of unemployment and inflation.

Now the RSS short-burning tweet is bound to raise the temperature in the coming days. Congress is on a stated mission to "Bharat Jodo", but tweets which appear to instigate violence should at best be dropped. Confrontations like this only vitiate the political discourse and surely divert attention from real issues that the opposition should be highlighting in a democracy.