On a day after Bharatiya Janata Party national president Amit Shah declared Ram Nath Kovind as the party’s pick for the upcoming presidential elections in July, party spokesperson Nupur Sharma filed a police complaint against journalist Rana Ayyub. The complaint comes after the journalist tweeted on the BJP’s choice: “And you thought Pratibha Patil was the worst bet.”
Terming the remark “defamatory, hate-filled and derogatory”, Nupur registered a case with the police under SC/ST Act, 1989 against Rana. She also said in her complaint that her comment against the Bihar governor was “insulting and humiliating.” When she faced criticism for her action with people saying that the BJP is terrorising people for a harmless tweet, she defended herself saying: “Insulting a dalit is FOE (freedom of expression), but complaining against it is not my FOE.” The copy of the complaint was been circulated by the BJP on the social networking sites.
Filed a complaint against Journalist Rana Ayyub under SC/ST Act, 1989 for her derogatory tweet about Hon’ble Sh. #RamNathKovind ji pic.twitter.com/sVk7ZqjQUk
– Nupur Sharma (@NupurSharmaBJP) June 19, 2017
Reacting to the complaint, Rana hit back saying: “Can somebody please advice BJP spokies that if they need to intimidate, at least come up with better ones. I insist!”
Filed a complaint against Journalist Rana Ayyub under SC/ST Act, 1989 for her derogatory tweet about Hon’ble Sh. #RamNathKovind ji pic.twitter.com/sVk7ZqjQUk
– Nupur Sharma (@NupurSharmaBJP) June 19, 2017
Rana also questioned if the Sikhs should be offended by Narendra Modi’s comment on Manmohan Singh. “So should the Sikh community be offended when PM Modi said that Manmohan Singh knew the art of bathing with a raincoat on,” she tweeted.
This is how people are reacting to the controversy:
Abuse of law by @BJP4India spokies to terrorise for a harmless tweet, should scare everyone who supports FOE! @narendramodi ji stop this! https://t.co/Uy68FBDe2s
– VADIRAJ C S (@vschanna) June 19, 2017
Wait till they file a complaint against you for saying this 🙂 https://t.co/tfru8ZSmKN
– Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) June 19, 2017
However, Rana Ayyub was not the only one who compared Kovind to Pratibha Patil. Several memes and comments on the same were doing the rounds on social media soon after Amit Shah made the announcement.
By choosing Pratibha Patil UPA established that just anybody could be President of India. BJP now takes it forward with another unknown
— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) June 19, 2017
Q- Who is Ram Nath Kovind?
A- He's the Pratibha Patil of the BJP _— Akash Banerjee (@akashbanerjee) June 19, 2017
UPA' Pratibha Patil; NDA's Ram Nath Kovind. Dalit leader, obvious politics. Will opposition now field Dalit as well?
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) June 19, 2017
Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind was on Monday declared NDA’s Presidential candidate. Commending him for his past, Amit Shah had on Monday said that Kovind had made an immense contribution and had worked hard for Dalits and backward communities. He also stated that the decision to elect him has been taken after thorough discussion with the leaders of the opposition parties adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken to Congress President Sonia Gandhi too.
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