Identity politics: Assam Congress tweet links Gujaratis to fraud crimes

'Another Gujarati, one more bank fraud, same modus operandi of fleeing from the country. Chowkidar-ji sleeping during his duty,' Congress tweeted

The Congress party was criticised on social media on Monday when the official Twitter handle of the Assam unit of the party tweeted the news about a businessman from Gujarat, who was being investigated by probe agencies for an alleged bank fraud, and who might have escaped to Nigeria. "Another Gujarati, one more bank fraud, same modus operandi of fleeing from the country. Chowkidar-ji sleeping during his duty," the Congress party's Assam unit official Twitter handle said. There was a maelstrom of criticism — the party came under attack for being “parochial” and “for promoting the kind of identity politics it claims to stand against”.

A united front
 

The Samajwadi Party stalwarts are working overtime to put up a united front ever since Shivpal Yadav  formed the Samajwadi Secular Morcha in August and invited all "neglected" leaders from his former party to join him. This week party chief Akhilesh Yadav and his father and former party president Mulayam Singh Yadav presented a picture of camaraderie at a rally in New Delhi. After thanking his father for appearing with him on stage, Akhilesh took on state chief minister Yogi Adityanath over a recent remark. "The CM urges people to chant the Hanuman Chalisa to get rid of monkeys. 2019 will show who flees and who stays," he quipped.

Monkey business
 

On Monday, regular commuters of Delhi Metro bumped into an unusual visitor. They were taken by surprise when a visitor of the simian variety wandered into the new Azadpur Metro station during the morning rush hour. CISF and DMRC staff shooed it away before it could harm anyone. Interestingly, this is the second such incident. Last September, a video had surfaced that showed a monkey taking a ride in a Delhi Metro train. During that instance, the monkey could be seen moving from one coach to another before finally taking a seat.