Rajnath tries to end row following Kiran Bedi’s tweet, says she has regretted

Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday sought to end a controversy involving Puducherry’s Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) politicians, saying the former IPS officer had regretted posting a tweet that Tamil Nadu MPs claimed showed them in poor light.

In her now-deleted tweet, Bedi on Sunday had blamed the water crisis in Tamil Nadu on “poor governance, corrupt politics, indifferent bureaucracy with highly selfish and cowardly attitude of the people”.

For the second day in a row, TR Baalu of the DMK raised the issue in the Lok Sabha and said Bedi’s comment was made without any provocation and had generated a strong reaction in Tamil Nadu. It was an insult to Tamil society and state politicians, Baalu said.

Singh, however, said Bedi had deleted the tweet and issued a statement expressing deep regret, so the matter should be put to rest. He said the home ministry had taken necessary action in the matter after it was raised in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Singh quoted from Bedi’s statement: “What was written was a people perspective shared in my personal capacity, as it came at a time when people were hugely suffering for water in Chennai. However, I admit it was avoidable. And I should not have shared it in public in this manner and I too realised it...”

DMK parliamentarian Dayanidhi Maran said: “I hope that henceforth the government adopts the same attitude in dealing with matters of dissent and voices of opposition as well.”

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the House should adopt a resolution condemning Bedi for allegedly humiliating the people of Tamil Nadu.