Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij, who called for "extermination from the roots" wherever seeds of anti-nationalism found in reaction to the arrest of climate activist Disha Ravi, has now defended his controversial statement saying he did not mean that those who had "seeds of anti-nationalist thoughts" should be exterminated, but be "purified" of their mindset.
The minister's tweet, which was removed briefly by Twitter following a complaint and later restored as the social media giant said the tweet was not "subject to removal under the Twitter rules," was widely criticised, but Vij remains unfazed as he said he did not call for destruction of people like Disha Ravi, but destruction of their thought process which is anti-national.
“Whoever harbours the seeds of anti-nationalism in their mind, that has to be destroyed from the roots (samool naash), be it #Disha_Ravi or anyone else,” Vij had said in a one line tweet in Hindi.
According to NDTV, the minister said he had called for purification of thoughts and added that "I talked about the destruction of seeds sown to harbour such thought process." Further, he said he is not against dissent as it is part of democracy.
Reacting to the criticism of his tweet, he claimed that those criticising him are educated in English medium schools and do not understand Hindi.
He pointed out that his tweet was restored by Twitter, which said there was nothing wrong with his statement.
