The Congress on Saturday sought apology from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), alleging that the party leaders shared a doctored video of Rahul Gandhi on their social media handles.
Congress MP Jairam Ramesh wrote to BJP president JP Nadda, drawing attention to a video of Gandhi's statement which was aired on a news channel.
The video of Gandhi speaking to reporters was run by a news channel on Friday, claiming the Congress MP from Wayanad called the murderers of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal ‘children’.
However, it was found that Rahul Gandhi was speaking to reporters over the vandalism of his Wayad office and said those who did this were children.
The news channel later apologised and the Congress initiated appropriate legal action against the broadcaster.
In the letter to JP Nadda, Jairam Ramesh, the Congress' General Secretary in charge of Communications, said the original video was of Gandhi's comment on the violence at his Wayanad office “but it was deliberately and mischievously doctored to appear as if it was a comment on the heinous murder of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur.”
{{/usCountry}}In the letter to JP Nadda, Jairam Ramesh, the Congress' General Secretary in charge of Communications, said the original video was of Gandhi's comment on the violence at his Wayanad office “but it was deliberately and mischievously doctored to appear as if it was a comment on the heinous murder of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur.”
{{/usCountry}}Calling the news channel's reportage on Rahul Gandhi false and deliberately misleading, Ramesh pointed out that BJP leaders including Rajyavardhan Rathore, Subrat Pathak and Kamlesh Saini among others enthusiastically and without verification, published and shared the deliberately fabricated and distorted reportage.
Sharpening his attack on Rajyavardhan Rathore, Ramesh said that despite being cautioned by Congress leaders that the clip of Rahul Gandhi was false and misleading, the BJP leader persisted with amplifying the same, first deleting and then re-uploading the same.
“This leaves no doubt that his (Rajyavardhan Rathore) actions were deliberate and part of your party's (BJP) strategy to defame the former INC president (Rahul Gandhi), to defame the Congress and to further polarise an already sensitive, communal situation," Ramesh told Nadda.
He asked the BJP president to immediately issue an apology on behalf of his colleagues, adding failure to do so will lead to legal action against the saffron party and its leaders.