The Congress on Monday, 26 September, said it had initiated legal action against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Priti Gandhi for allegedly "spreading fake and divisive news to disrupt the Bharat Jodo Yatra."
The party has so far initiated legal proceedings against BJP leaders on five occasions, according to PTI.
Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, tweeted what he said was a police complaint by Kerala MP Hibi Eden against a particularly "vicious bhakt."
In his complaint, Eden alleged that Priti Gandhi, on 24 September, shared a post with two photos – one of Rahul Gandhi posing with a Congress leader and another of Amulya Leona Noronha, a Bengaluru-based activist – on her Twitter handle, with a caption that read: "Look carefully. Not Bharat Jodo, this is Bharat Todo!!"
Eden stated that the idea these pictures sought to convey was that Rahul Gandhi was posing with a person who had been accused of sloganeering 'Pakistan Zindabad' on a previous occasion.
The woman he posed with supposedly looked like Amulya Leona Noronha, who was arrested in February 2020 for allegedly chanting 'Pakistan zindabad' at a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act. But she was actually Youth Congress leader Miva Jolly, as party leaders quickly underlined.
Priti's post reportedly insinuated that the two women were the same person and that Gandhi was embracing a pro-Pakistan activist.
Pointing out that "the individuals in the photographs were two separate and distinct people," Eden stated: "Priti Gandhi then deleted the tweet and immediately uploaded another one to double down on her messaging making base and vulgar insinuations without the scantest regard for the individuals involved."
'Not an Innocent Distortion'
The distortion was not an innocent one, Eden alleged, because it sought to falsely suggest that Rahul Gandhi, who was on a yatra to unite Indians, had demonstrated sympathy for individuals who supported Pakistan, approved their illegal sloganeering, and was ultimately attempting to "break India."
Priti Gandhi's was only the latest in a series of the BJP's attempts to use falsehood, innuendoes, and trivialities to deflect attention from the crowds the yatra has attracted, the Congress said.
Lavanya Ballal, general secretary of the Congress communications wing, who is part of the walkathon, tagged Priti Gandhi to inform her she would soon get a lawyer's notice for her malicious comments, according to The Telegraph.
"Dear @MrsGandhi, please expect legal notice. You are the real vile Bharat thodo team. A vulture which feeds and spreads fake news," the tweet said.
In response, Priti came up with a more vitriolic tweet, accompanied by the same picture of Rahul and Miva.
"But what is it with Rahul Gandhi? Why does he grab young girls to get pictures? Last time, we were told she is his niece but what’s the excuse now? He isn’t the father figure types & even if he is, why get so intimate for photos? This excessive display of affection is troubling!" Priti wrote.
Last week, the BJP's Tamil Nadu IT cell chief, CT Nirmal Kumar, posted an old picture of Rahul Gandhi holding a young woman's hand, giving sexual connotations to it.
After Congress leaders emphasised that the young woman in the picture was Rahul Gandhi's niece, Kumar deleted the tweet.
(With inputs from PTI and The Telegraph.)
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