By PTI
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday said an FIR has been registered against BJP MPs Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Subrat Pathak on its complaint related to a fake video of Rahul Gandhi, allegedly aimed at disturbing communal harmony.
The FIR against the MPs and three others was registered in Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh, chief of the party’s media and publicity team Pawan Khera said.
He said Congress has also lodged complaints against them in Delhi, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.
This follows Congress leader Jairam Ramesh writing to BJP president J P Nadda that the party should initiate action against its leaders for spreading fake news against Rahul Gandhi.
The grand old party on Sunday warned the BJP and a section of the media to desist from doctoring facts to “defame” the party and its leaders, and said an FIR has been registered in Jaipur against a TV channel for airing a doctored video of Rahul Gandhi.
Congress leader and head of media and publicity Pawan Khera said more such action will be taken against the BJP and its leaders for propagating fake news and sharing the doctored video of Gandhi in which his comments about SFI leaders, who allegedly ransacked his Wayanad office were “mischievously” used as if it looked like he was condoning or forgiving the killers of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur.
The purported video has since been taken off air and the channel has apologised after admitting its mistake, he said, but added that a lot of damage has already been done.
Khera warned that Congress will take stern and a befitting legal action against all those indulging in fake news against its leadership as its “decency should not be mistaken as its shackle”.
The Congress leader alleged that former information and broadcasting minister Rajyavardhan Rathore, who hails from Rajasthan, shared the video “irresponsibly” and some others in the BJP followed suit.
Noting that this particular episode acquires a very serious dimension as it involves communal harmony of the country, Khera said, “You cannot aggravate passions by doctoring videos and provoking people, provoking communities.”
“This FIR was registered against the channel, against the MPs and the senior leaders of the BJP. Bigger action will follow.”
“Because anybody who thinks that our decency is our shackle, he has sadly mistaken. It is our ornament and we are free to take that ornament off and take legal action. Gone are the days we continued to be decent because we have been watching the BJP, its IT cell,” he said.
Khera said the Congress will remind those in power of their ‘Raj Dharma’ and their constitutional oath.
Asked whether the FIR names Rathore too, he said it is against the channel and some others for now, and more names will be added soon.
