Congress President Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to jailed Manipur journalist Kishorechandra Wangkhem, who is in jail under the National Security Act (NSA), strongly condemning his detention.
As reported by NDTV, Gandhi, in the letter, said, "This is another attempt to use the state machinery to silence dissent. Over the past few months, we have witnessed the BJP government's design to trample on constitutional rights of the people of Manipur."
He further said, referring to the developments on the national front, that "regressive forces continue to unleash violence with impunity, while those who seek accountability from the state are being jailed."
The Congress chief said in his letter that “fascist forces” are trying to attack anyone who “challenges their distorted narrative”.
Wangkhem, an anchor with the local channel in Imphal, was sentenced to one-year in detention under the NSA in December 2018, for allegedly targeting the BJP government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a social media post.
The Manipur government said he was detained to "prevent him from acting in any matter prejudicial to the security of the state and maintenance of public order".
The journalist, in his video posted on social media, had called Chief Minister N Biran Singh a "puppet" of the prime minister. He had also slammed the RSS for organising functions to mark Rani Lakshmibai's birth anniversary.
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