‘Democracy, freedom under threat’: Sanjay Raut slams Centre on Dorsey's claims

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday hit out at the central government over former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's claims on farmers' protest.

Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday hit out at the central government over former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's claims on farmers' protest, saying that the “democracy and freedom in India are under threat”. “I have seen how democracy is being strangulated behind the curtain. This makes it clear,” Raut told news agency ANI.

Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut. (HT PHOTO)

Earlier in the day, Dorsey spoke about India's year-long farmers' protest (Nov 2020-2021), doing so on a YouTube show, ‘Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar.’ When asked if he ever faced any “pressure” from a foreign government as the CEO of Twitter, Dorsey said, “India for example, India is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers protests, around particular journalists which were critical of the government, and it manifested in ways such as ‘we will shut Twitter down in India’… ‘we would raid the homes of your employees', which they did; ‘we will shut down your offices if you don't follow suit’. And this is India, a democratic country.”

Notably, Dorsey co-founded Twitter and was the CEO of its namesake parent company until his departure from the role in November 2021.

What did the government say?

The Centre immediately dismissed Dorsey's claims, calling it an “outright lie”. Union minister of state for entrepreneurship, skill development, electronics and technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “No one went to jail nor was Twitter ‘shutdown’…India as a sovereign nation has the right to ensure that its laws are followed by all companies operating in India.”