On 26th November (Sunday), a BJYM official filed a Police Complaint against Anand Prakash, a member of the OBC Commission of the Delhi government and a part of AAP’s teacher wing, after he accused BJP of orchestrating the Pulwama terror attack. The complaint states that Prakash hurt the sentiments of the general public and defamed the Union government by ‘deliberately’ spreading disinformation about the February 2019 Pulwama terror attack.
Anand Prakash shared a Tweet on X on 26th November 2023 in which he accused the Modi government of carrying out the Pulwama attack to win the Lok Sabha 2019 elections. The complaint also includes the contents and link of the said post.
Professor Anand Prakash’s post read, “भाजपा ने क्या किया नौ सालो मे? पुलवामा अटैक खुद करवा कर चुनाव जीता देश के जवानों को मार कर”. (Translation – What has the Modi government done in last nine years? It carried out Pulwama attack on its own and won elections after killing Indian soldiers)
The attached link of the post – (https://x.com/anand11_aap/status/17286427231444951337s=46&t=SCkxui6amC3nFgiXIVCDzg)
However, following the police complaint, he deleted his Twitter account (@anand11_aap), therefore the tweet doesn’t exist.
Notably, Anand Prakash is an Assistant Professor at Rajdhani College, University Of Delhi. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is also a Member of the OBC Commission of the Government Of NCT of Delhi.
He is also a member of the Aam Aadmi Party, and his Instagram account ID is Anand11_AAP. He is a part of the Academics for Action and Development Teachers’ Association (AADTA), the teachers’ wing of the Aam Aadmi Party.
The Police complaint has been filed at the Moti Nagar Police Station by the National Executive Member of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Abhimanyu Tyagi.
Regarding the alleged defamatory post, the complaint states, “This post come when the country is mourning over the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and paying homage to the soldier, police officers and other soldiers martyred concerned security and the citizens who were killed in the 26/11 terrorist attack…”
It added, “..the post of the Accused where he is defaming our country and alleging that the ruling government led by Bharatiya Janata Party had pre-planned the Pulawama attack and killed the soldiers of our country for the sake of winning elections.”
Abhimanyu Tyagi filed the complaint after BJP leader Tajinder Bagga asked him to do so. “He is Assistant Professor in Rajdhani college and blaming India for Pulwama terrorist attack. @Abhiemanyu ji pls go to local police station and file FIR against him,” Bagga had tweeted.
. @DCPWestDelhi He is Assistant Professor in Rajdhani college and blaming India for Pulwama terrorist attack. @Abhiemanyu ji pls go to local police station and file FIR against him https://t.co/niwHZyuYnu
— Tajinder Bagga (@TajinderBagga) November 26, 2023
According to the complaint, the post was shared to target the ruling government to dishearten and discourage the soldiers which can be exploited by the enemy countries to plan a war against our nation.
The complaint argued that such an irresponsible statement and post were made by the accused deliberately to invoke and provoke riots in Delhi and other parts of the country by using such disparaging and deprecatory words.
The complaint further reads, “That Posting such an irresponsible statement by the Accused is deliberate and intentional attempt to invoke and provoke the riots in Delhi and other parts of the country by using such disparaging and deprecatory words by an Assistant Professor who is supposed to be a prudent man and have more responsibility compared to others as he is a teacher and the future of so many students is in the hand of him. It can be very well understood that if he can post such statement than what he must be teaching in his classes.”
The said defamatory post by Professor Anand Prakash is an offence in the Indian Penal Code, 1860 as well as the Information Technology Act, 2000, the complaint added. Subsequently, the complainant demanded that a thorough investigation should be initiated and an FIR be registered against the accused. As per the complaint, prima facia “defamatory post against the BJP-led ruling Government can be a tool to instigate riots”.
Pulwama terror attack
On February 14, 2019, a convoy of vehicles carrying Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel to Srinagar via National Highway 44 came under a suicide bombing attack in Pulwama. 22-year-old Adil Ahmad Dar, a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist from Kakapora in Jammu and Kashmir, rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into a bus carrying the CRPF personnel. 40 of our jawans were martyred in that cowardly terror attack.
The terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), based in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack. They also posted a video of the Islamic terrorist Adil Ahmad Dar, who had joined the outfit a year before. In an official statement, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) stated that Pakistan was responsible for assisting terrorist attacks and that JeM founder Maulana Masood Azhar had been “given the freedom to target India.”
However, the ghastly terror attack was not spared by certain opposition leaders and political parties who tried to give a clean chit to Pakistan and the terrorists involved.
The opposition leaders tried to pin the blame on Narendra Modi instead and tried to spin conspiracy theories around the attack. The anti-Modi sentiment and the fear of getting wiped out from the political spectrum ahead of the 2019 general elections were so deep-rooted in the opposition leaders that they went on to accuse Modi of executing this brutal attack for BJP’s political gains. Many of them also questioned the role of the armed forces during this attack. Others questioned the air strike by the Indian Air Force in Balakot after this attack.
Strikingly, on 21st July this year, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee also tried to pass off the 2019 Pulwama terror attack as a ‘staged incident’ at her Martyr’s Day rally at Esplanade in Kolkata.
In her speech, Banerjee claimed, “I will tell the students and the youth that the BJP is planning to pull off staged events such as Pulwama (terror attack).”
“They are planning to create fake, staged videos like in movies. They will stage dramas, shoot videos, and defame Bengal. This is their conspiracy,” she brazened it out.
