The Congress on Saturday strongly objected to BJP leaders allegedly sharing on social media a “false and deliberately misleading” media report that purportedly misquoted former party chief Rahul Gandhi's statements and threatened the saffron party with legal action if it did not issue an apology on behalf of the party functionaries in question.
AICC General Secretary in charge of Communication Jairam Ramesh has written to BJP president J.P. Nadda, alleging that several of his party colleagues have been “deliberately and enthusiastically” sharing “mischievous reportage” that he claimed was carried by Zee News at 9pm on July 1 regarding Gandhi's comments made during his visit to Kerala.
“The original video was Shri Rahul Gandhi’s comment on the SFI violence on his Wayanad office but it was deliberately and mischievously doctored to appear as if it was a comment on the heinous murder of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur,” Ramesh wrote.
He said that it was immediately brought to the attention of all concerned that the reportage was false and deliberately misleading. “In fact, not a single other channel has presented the clip in such a deliberately fabricated and distorted manner,” he wrote.
Ramesh claimed that several BJP leaders, “including Shri Rajyavardhan Rathore, MP, Shri Subrat Pathak MP, Shri Kamlesh Saini, MLA and others, have enthusiastically and without verification published and shared the deliberately fabricated and distorted reportage.”
He further wrote that despite being cautioned by Congress leaders that the clip was “maliciously false and misleading”, Rathore allegedly persisted with amplifying the same, first deleting and then re-uploading the same.
“This leaves no doubt that his (Rathore's) actions were deliberate and part of your party’s strategy to defame the former INC president, to defame the Congress party and to further polarise an already sensitive, communal situation. The fact that some of your colleagues may have deleted the false reportage later after uploading and sharing is no excuse whatsoever because the damage has already been inflicted,” Ramesh wrote.
The senior Congress leader said his party has already initiated appropriate legal action against the original broadcaster. He said he expected Nadda and his party colleagues to cease and desist from spreading such falsehoods.
Ramesh said that his party's expectation is that Nadda will immediately issue an appropriate apology on behalf of his colleagues who have allegedly shared the dubious reportage on Gandhi.“If this apology is not issued today, we will take appropriate legal action against your party and its leaders who insist and persist in using the social media in such a blatantly irresponsible and criminal manner,” Ramesh wrote.
