Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday told historian Ramachandra Guha not to worry about the economy as it is in “safe hand...
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday told historian Ramachandra Guha not to worry about the economy as it is in “safe hands”. Sitharaman’s comments came after a long debate on Twitter in which Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani also weighed in.
The debate was set off after Guha had tweeted a quote from British writer Philip Spratt comparing Gujarat, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state, and West Bengal. Quoting Spratt, Guha tweeted, “Gujarat, though economically advanced, is culturally a backward province...Bengal in contrast is economically backward but culturally advanced.”
Describing Spratt as “an Englishman who became an Indian as well as a communist who became a free market liberal”, Guha clarified in another tweet that he doesn’t necessarily endorse the quotes that he posts. “Reserve your praise or your anger for the ghost of the person being quoted,” he had said.
However, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani responded to Guha’s tweets, and said these were tricks to divide Indians. “Earlier it was the British who tried to divide and rule,” he wrote. “Now it is a group of elites who want to divide Indians.”
Guha sarcastically retorted that Gujarat was “indeed in safe hands” since the chief minister is “so keenly following the tweets of...
