Tweets posted by journalist Rana Ayyub and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MP Asaduddin Owaisi on the Mumbai train firing incident have been taken down on orders by the Union government.
On Monday, Railway Protection Force constable Chetan Singh shot dead Assistant Sub-Inspector Tika Ram Meena and three other Muslim passengers on the Jaipur-Mumbai Central Superfast Express. Singh walked through several compartments of the train to pick his victims.
He also asked passengers to record a video in which he can be heard hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath as the body of one of the Muslim men lies at his feet.
“They operate from Pakistan, this is what the media of the country is showing,” Singh can be heard saying in the video.
“They have found out, they know everything, their leaders are there. If you want to vote, if you want to live in India, then I say, Modi and Yogi, these are the two, and your Thackeray”, he said.
The video was widely shared on social media. Ayyub and Owaisi shared the video in their tweets, holding the Narendra Modi government responsible for the “anti-Muslim hate speech”.
“My tweet on the train incident has been withheld in India in response to a demand by the government of India. Twitter has written to me to inform of the same. So much for the mother of democracy”, Ayyub wrote on Monday.
Owaisi too asked on Twitter what law did he break by posting the video.
“My tweet on the #JaipurExpressTerrorAttack has been withheld in India at the request of the Government of India. What law did it violate? Is calling a terror attack a terror attack a crime? Wish the Modi govt was this proactive in preventing hate crimes against Muslims”, Owaisi wrote.
Tweets on the incident posted by Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair, a fan account of Trinamool Congress Krishnanagar MP Mahua Moitra and Nimo Yadav, a parody account with over 64,000 followers, have also been removed, reported The Hindu.
According to the newspaper, the Centre has ordered Twitter to take down the video in India under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.