'Through Rahul Gandhi Twitter row, Congress trying to divert nation's attention from Centre's initiative of cashless economy'

New Delhi: A day after Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's Twitter account was allegedly hacked and abusive tweets were posted through it, Congress has said that the Centre's lack of digital safety led to the hacking of the account.

Rejecting the allegations against the Centre, Union Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has alleged that the grand old party is trying to divert the nation's attention from the government's initiative for a cashless economy.

"The Congress is indulging in such activities to mislead the country as the push for a cashless economy is gaining wider acceptance," Prasad said.

"We are surprised that the Congress Party is trying to level these baseless allegations. It is unfortunate, regrettable and may be we suspect a design to mislead the country," Prasad told media.

"But what worries me is the kind of sweeping allegations being made as if trying to divert the attention of the Narendra Modi government`s initiative for a cashless economy, for a new initiative against black money and how India is going towards a digital payment," he added.

"The government completely disapproves of the hacking of Gandhi`s Twitter account," Prasad added.

Earlier in the day, the Congress Party`s official Twitter handle was also allegedly hacked.

This took place barely hours after the Congress vice-president`s Twitter handle was allegedly hacked.

Extremely upset with the latest developments in this regard, the Congress lashed out at the Centre and asked Prime Minister Modi to seriously ponder over `Digital India`, `Cashless India` and online payments.

"If you cannot protect a private platform for conversation of crores of the people of India, how can you ever protect them from being hacked in terms of their financial money is also a question that the people of India need to think and ponder over," Congress media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala said.

(With agency inputs)