Accusing BJP leaders, together with former Union minister Rajyavardhan Rathore, of sharing “intentionally fabricated and distorted reportage” on Rahul Gandhi’s feedback in Kerala, the Congress on Saturday threatened to take authorized motion in opposition to them if the saffron get together fails to apologise.
Rahul Gandhi additionally lashed out on the BJP and the RSS, alleging that “propaganda and lies” are their basis.
The opposition get together attacked Rathore and referred to as him “shameless” after Twitter labelled a publish by him on a video of Rahul Gandhi’s remarks in Kerala as “media offered out of context”.
In a letter to BJP chief J P Nadda, Congress normal secretary in-charge communication Jairam Ramesh mentioned he was appalled to notice that a number of BJP leaders have been intentionally and enthusiastically sharing “mischievous” reportage that occurred on a information channel on Friday.
“The unique video was Shri. Rahul Gandhi’s touch upon the SFI violence on his Wayanad workplace nevertheless it was intentionally and mischievously doctored to seem as if it was a touch upon the heinous homicide of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur,” Ramesh mentioned.
It was instantly delivered to the eye of all involved that the reportage was false and intentionally deceptive, he mentioned.
“What’s of even larger concern, is that a number of of your get together colleagues, together with Rajyavardhan Rathore, MP, Subrat Pathak MP, Kamlesh Saini, MLA and others, have enthusiastically and with out verification revealed and shared the intentionally fabricated and distorted reportage,” Ramesh mentioned in his letter.
“Regardless of being cautioned by my get together colleagues that the clip was maliciously false and deceptive, Rathore continued with amplifying the identical, first deleting after which re-uploading the identical,” he mentioned.
This leaves little doubt that Rathore’s actions have been deliberate and a part of your get together’s technique to defame the previous Congress president, the get together and to additional polarise an already delicate, communal scenario, Ramesh alleged.
”The truth that a few of your colleagues might have deleted the false reportage later after importing and sharing is not any excuse by any means as a result of the harm has already been inflicted,” he mentioned.
“We’ve already initiated acceptable authorized motion in opposition to the unique broadcaster. We count on that you simply and your get together colleagues will stop and desist from spreading such falsehoods,” Ramesh mentioned in his communication to Nadda.
“Moreover, I count on that you’ll instantly problem an acceptable apology on behalf of your colleagues who’ve acted with such reckless disregard in the direction of the reality.
“If this apology shouldn’t be issued at this time, we’ll take acceptable authorized motion in opposition to your get together and its leaders who insist and persist in utilizing social media in such a blatantly irresponsible and felony method,” Ramesh warned.
There was no instant response from the BJP.
In an obvious reference to the difficulty, Rahul Gandhi in a tweet in Hindi mentioned, “Complete India is aware of the historical past of BJP-RSS, which warms its fingers by pushing the nation within the fireplace of hatred.
“Irrespective of how a lot these traitors attempt to break the nation, the Congress will proceed to do extra work to unite India,” he mentioned.
The communication division head, Pawan Khera, mentioned that these BJP leaders who’ve put out “faux video” of Rahul Gandhi needs to be able to tour the nation as they must make rounds of the courts of many cities.
“Doctored Shameless Rathore has this honour of being labelled by @twitter as a person who posts faux content material,” Khera tweeted, sharing a screenshot of Twitter’s flagging of Rathore’s publish.
Congress’ social media in-charge Supriya Srinate additionally slammed the BJP for sharing the video to mislead individuals and referred to as Rathore a “faux information peddler”.