FIR against Nadda, Amit Malviya as video ‘demonising Muslims’ emerges
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Bengaluru: The Karnataka Police has registered a first information report against senior BJP leaders including the party national president JP Nadda after a social media post ‘demonising Muslims’ emerged, Scroll.in news portal reported citing The Times of India.
The saffron party’s information technology cell chief Amit Malviya and its Karnataka unit chief BY Vijayendra were also booked after the Karnataka Congress filed a police complaint about the animated video.
The video uploaded to the BJP’s Karnataka social media handles on May 4 was captioned “Beware.. Beware.. Beware..!” in Kannada, which featured caricatures of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The caricatures were seen placing an egg with “Muslims” written on it in a nest where there were eggs marked as “SC [Scheduled Castes], ST [Scheduled Tribes] and OBC [Other Backward Classes]”.
Rahul Gandhi in the animated video was seen feeding ‘funds’ to a bird, which was wearing a skull cap as it was hatching the ‘Muslim’ egg.
The video showed the ‘Muslim’ bird pushing away the fledglings hatching from other three eggs with a laugh.
The video appeared on the BJP’s social media handles ahead of polling for the 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, taking place on May 7.
The Karnataka Congress alleged that the video appeared on the account operated by Malviya, adding that it was done under the instruction of Nadda and Vijayendra.
“The act of the accused persons is to wantonly provoke rioting and promote enmity between different religions and is prejudicial to maintenance of harmony apart from intimidating members of the SC/ST [Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes] community not to vote for a particular candidate and causing enmity against members of SC/ST community,” the complaint reportedly said.
The three leaders are facing charges under sections of the Representation of People Act and section 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code, PTI reported.
In its complaint to the Election Commission, the Congress said that the video violated the Model Code of Conduct issued by the commission.
The video faced widespread criticism on social media with many openly calling it out.
