Congress has just suffered a humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections and it was widely publicised that the party leadership is busy ‘introspecting’. However, all the deliberation, thinking and discussions seem to have achieved nothing since the party president, who remains party president despite a long resignation drama continues to be his hypocritical, entitled self.
Taking to Twitter to express his stand over the issue of arrest of some ‘journalists’ in UP, Rahul Gandhi stated that the UP CM is behaving foolishly and needs to release these journalists.
If every journalist who files a false report or peddles fake, vicious RSS/BJP sponsored propaganda about me is put in jail, most newspapers/ news channels would face a severe staff shortage.
The UP CM is behaving foolishly & needs to release the arrested journalists. https://t.co/KtHXUXbgKS
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 11, 2019
Prashant Kanojia was arrested for spreading rumours and obscene remarks. 2 other persons associated with an unlicensed news channel named Nation Live who had held a panel discussion over the same fake news that Kanojia had shared were arrested too. The said channel allegedly had no permit or license for its operations and was being broadcast illegally.
Kanjojia’s arrest has brought to fore his Twitter account where he is seen consistently and blatantly spreading fake news, Hinduphobia and derogatory tweets. In one tweet, he has compared Dalits to animals. The Supreme Court has however ordered the immediate release of Kanojia.
As expected, left-leaning media portals and India’s pseudo-liberals are up in arms against the UP government over the arrests. However, Congress president Rahul Gandhi condemning the arrests comes from a special level of hypocrisy.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi had not uttered a word over the arrests of journalists in Karnataka, where his party is in power with JDS.
In November 2018, the Congress-JDS government in Karnataka had arrested journalist Santhosh Thammayya for his speech where he had criticised Tipu Sultan for his bigotry and atrocities. Rahul Gandhi did not condemn anyone for their behaviour, foolish or otherwise, at that time.
Recently, an FIR has been filed against journalist Vishweshwar Bhat for publishing a report against CM Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy. Rahul Gandhi did not consider it foolish behaviour either. In August 2018, a man was arrested in Karnataka for trolling CM Kumaraswamy on social media. Rahul Gandhi had not spared a single pearl of wisdom over that issue either.
Rahul Gandhi’s entitlement comes from a legacy whose most noteworthy contribution to India is the imposition of emergency and ordering raids and arrests against journalists who were exposing their corruption. An extensive list of Congress and its leadership’s actions against journalists and publishing houses is maintained by scientist and columnist Anand Ranganathan.
221. @INCIndia ORDERED massive raids at the @IndianExpress building and its owner R Goenka’s guesthouse, incensed at the paper’s investigative reports on Reliance-Govt nexus courtesy Arun Shourie & @sgurumurthy who was ARRESTED under Official Secrets Act. https://t.co/sSwWVejqhC pic.twitter.com/AQ8yqaxnnU
— Anand Ranganathan (@ARanganathan72) July 6, 2018
If any party has done the most to suffocate and gag freedom of speech, it is the Congress. As recently as last year, It was Congress which was up against the movie The Accidental Prime Minister, Congress had attempted to stop Netflix’s Sacred Games because it called Rajiv Gandhi ‘Fattu’. When Congress wrokers had tried to disrupt the screening of ‘Indu Sarkar’, not a single word was uttered by Rahul gandhi about their behaviour.
Even if we ignore all the above, Congress manifesto released before the 2019 general elections included a section that said, “Pass regulations to stop the spread of fake news and hate speech and punish those who misuse digital and social media.” Before issuing advises to the UP government. Rahul Gandhi needs to spend some time actually doing that much publicised ‘introspection’.
