Even as Rahul Gandhi continues to indulge in empty photo-ops where he is seen “helping injured” journalists, at an election meeting in Tamil Nadu, a photo-journalist was thrashed by Congress workers for taking pictures of empty chairs. The journalist was from a Tamil weekly magazine and in a video that has now gone viral, Congress workers can be seen beating him up mercilessly for clicking photographs of empty chairs at the election rally.
#WATCH Tamil Nadu: Congress workers manhandle and thrash photojournalists who were allegedly clicking pictures of empty chairs at a public rally by the party in Virudhunagar. (06.04.2019) pic.twitter.com/epTiD9iLtK
— ANI (@ANI) April 7, 2019
Tamil Nadu Congress President KS Alagiri to participate in public meeting at Virudhunagar. Chairs are empty with no people, media takes photographs of empty chairs & Congress goondas enter scene to thrash the journalists for taking pics of empty chairs! Way to go @RahulGandhi ! pic.twitter.com/ysIr9d0xtT
— SG Suryah Chowkidar (@SuryahSG) April 6, 2019
Tamil Nadu Congress President KS Alagiri was reportedly to participate in a public meeting at Virudhunagar where there were plenty of empty chairs. The photo-journalist from a Tamil Nadu weekly took pictures where Congress workers indulged in shocking high-handedness and thrashed the journalist. The incident, according to India Today, happened April 6th 2019, Saturday.
The journalist, according to India Today, has been identified as RM Muthuraj.
While Congress has been caught roughing up a journalist just trying to do his job, Congress President Rahul Gandhi has been indulging in the drama of helping journalists who were reportedly ‘injured’.
Interestingly, journalists seem to miraculously get injured right where and when Rahul Gandhi is surrounded by several cameras.
In fact, in the first video of Rahul Gandhi helping a journalist surfaced, the journalist was caught on camera asking Rahul Gandhi to wipe his forehead again so he could “use the footage”.
Journalist Rajender Vyas met with an accident. Congress President stop his cavalcade and took him to Aiims. pic.twitter.com/p7q1Vk1fFO
— Aadesh Rawal (@AadeshRawal) March 27, 2019
Rahul Gandhi’s fake sympathy for journalists was also exposed when he indulged in name-calling after ANI Editor-in-Chief Smita Prakash had interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Congress President Rahul Gandhi in his press conference after embarrassing himself in the Parliament on the Rafale deal referred to Prakash as a ‘pliable journalist’ for her interview with PM Modi. Pliable means the one who can be bent easily, someone who’s flexible.
Recently, in the 2019 Election Manifesto, Rahul Gandhi made his views on the media and freedom of expression rather evident. In the manifesto, Congress has mentioned categorically that for them, slogans like ‘Bharat tere tukde honge’ is freedom of speech, however, the media needs a code of conduct that is enforceable by the government. They also included that they would crack down on social media while allowing seditious and treasonous speech to carry on unabetted.
It is thus evident that Congress would much rather have journalists be controlled by their government while allowing seditious elements to run amuck. This latest incident of Congress workers thrashing a journalist merely for taking pictures of their rally is yet another proof of that.
