Kiran Bedi Draws Flak For Wishing Puducherry on France’s FIFA Win

BJP leader Kiran Bedi sparked a flurry of excitement with her tweet about France’s World Cup victory.

File photo of Puducherry Governor Kiran Bedi.

(Photo: PTI/Twitter/Altered by The Quint)

Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry, Kiran Bedi’s congratulatory tweet to “Puducherrians" after the FIFA World Cup final on 15 July has sparked a controversy. After France won the coveted FIFA World Cup by defeating Croatia in a nail-biting game, Bedi lauded the win with a reference to Puducherry’s colonial past.

“We the Puducherrians (erstwhile French Territory) won the World Cup. Congratulations Friends. What a mixed team-all French. Sports unites (sic),” wrote Bedi in her tweet.

The reference to Puducherry as an erstwhile French colony did not go down well with several people, as a quick look through the comments’ section under her tweet showed.

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken called Bedi’s statement “unacceptable and anti-national” and advised PM Narendra Modi to find a replacement for her.

“This statement of Kiran Bedi is unacceptable and is definitely anti-national. Narendra Modi ji should recall Kiran Bedi immediately – May consider Dr Harsh Vardhan, Manoj Tiwari or Vijay Goel as a replacement,” Maken tweeted.

Here are some of the responses her post garnered on Twitter.

A handful of Twitter users rushed to defend the BJP leader.

However, Bedi seemed unfazed by the attention her tweet had garnered. In a tweet on the morning after the World Cup final, she wrote: