Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari has caused a political storm over a social media post in which he spoke about regime shifts in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal.
The BJP complained his remarks were directed at Rahul Gandhi, but Mr Tewari reacted, saying that "everything does not have to be dumbed down to a Congress-BJP".
In his blog posting, quoting a news item on massive protests in the Philippines against suspected corruption in flood control schemes, Mr Tewari pointed out that widespread public movements in Asia show that "entitlement is no longer acceptable".
"The toppling of - President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka in July 2023, Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh in July 2024, KP Sharma Oli in Nepal in September 2025 and now the protests against Ferdinand Marcos Jr in the Philippines have one word written over them. ENTITLEMENT IS NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE TO GEN X, Y, Z," he said. "Watch for my piece on ‘The Social Media Trends that toppled or are challenging ‘DYNASTS ‘ Study #nepokids or #TrillionPesoMarch in the meantime."
"Senior Congress leader Manish Tewari, member of the G-23 rebel group, takes aim at Rahul Gandhi - the ultimate 'Nepo Kid' of Indian politics. Forget Gen Z, even Congress's own veterans are fed up with his regressive politics. The revolt is now from within," senior BJP leader and head of its IT wing Amit Malviya said in a post on X.
Mr Tewari hit back at Mr Malviya with a swipe. "Gosh, I just wish that some people would grow up in life. Everything does not have to be dumbed down to a Cong-BJP, 'he said she said' or targeting X or Y.
"What is happening in South Asia and East Asia has serious National Security implications and why it is happening needs to be understood in the correct perspective," Mr Tewari wrote.
BJP MP and party spokesperson Sambit Patra also weighed in, saying, "People in our country have already removed the nepo kid in 2014."
Earlier, Mr Tewari, ex-Union Minister and Chandigarh MP, hogged the headlines when he was left out by the Congress leadership during the parliamentary discussion on Operation Sindoor.
Posting a news story of not featuring in the list of Congress speakers for the debate, he shared the lyrics of the old patriotic number from Purab Aur Pachhim (1970): "Hai preet jahaan ki reet sada, main geet wahaan ke gaata hoon, Bharat ka rehne waala hoon, Bharat ki baat sunata hoon. Jai Hind." When the media asked him about his post, the Congress MP had replied, "There is a saying in English, 'If you don't understand my silence, you will never understand my words'."
Mr Tewari was in an Indian delegation that went overseas as part of New Delhi's international outreach following Operation Sindoor. It is reported that he had asked the party leadership to address the debate, but the request was not entertained. The Congress leadership had feared that MPs in the delegations would not provide the cutting words of criticism of the government that the opposition was looking for.
