Congress seeks action against Kailash Vijayvargiya for posting ‘misrepresentative video’

Madhya Pradesh Congress demanded probe into a social media post of BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and legal action against him if the video that the BJP leader used in the post claiming it to be from violence-hit Khargone in the state, turned out to be misrepresentative as pointed out by fact checkers and some users who commented on Vijayvargiya’s post.

The demand of Congress comes two days after FIRs were registered against party leader Digvijaya Singh in multiple cities of Madhya Pradesh for posting a misrepresentative video (from Bihar) claiming it to be from Khargone. Singh had later deleted the video from his Twitter timeline, but FIRs were registered against him on complaints from BJP workers in multiple cities.

Congress said if action was not initiated against Vijayvargiya by the state government, it will file FIR against the BJP leader.

The controversy erupted over a post of Vijayvargiya on Thursday afternoon on Twitter and Facebook, in which he used a video of a man in beard and skullcap making some provocative remarks. Vijayvargiya said in the post (in Hindi) “this is the messenger of peace of chachajaan Digvijaya Singh in Khargone. What should the police do but take action on them? Whoever is the snake in the sleeve, it is necessary to crush their hoods.”

Soon after Vijayvargiya’s post on Twitter, fact checkers like Alt News and Webqoof (Quint Fact Check) posted reports in the comment section that claimed that the video in question was from Nizamabad in Telangana from the year 2019, which was also circulated as that from Karauli in Rajasthan where communal clashes erupted on April 2. The reports also mentioned that action had been initiated by Nizamabad police against the man seen in the video.

Other users also pointed out to Vijayvargiya that the video was not from Madhya Pradesh and some also asked the BJP leader to delete it. However, the video and the posted continued to be on Vijayvargiya’s timeline at the time of filing of this report.

Digvijaya Singh takes a dig

Digvijaya Singh took a dig at Vijayvargiya, citing the latter’s Facebook post on Twitter to say “Kailash ji, the video you have posted is not from Khargone. The language you have used is provocative. Why shouldn’t Shivraj ji (CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan) and Narottom ji (Home Minister Narottam Mishra), who are your special well-wishers, register a case against you? I will not do so, because I know that it’s not ‘acche din’ (good days) for you currently.”

However, MP Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja quoted Vijayvargiya’s post to say “BJP national general secretary has tweeted this video, claiming it to be from Khargone. Is this video from Khargone?.. Perhaps not? If this video is not from there (Khargone), then a case should be registered against him too on the basis of this fake video. This is an action to disturb harmony.”

Later, in a video statement, Saluja said case was registered against Digvijaya Singh despite him deleting a controversial video (from Bihar, which Singh had claimed to be from Khargone), so there should be a probe to find out whether the video used by Vijayvargiya was from Khargone and if not, similar action should be taken against the BJP leader.

Later, talking to THE WEEK, Saluja said the Congress will file a complaint against Vijayvargiya if the government fails to initiate action against him.