New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday went on an offensive and asked BJP president JP Nadda to apologise over party leaders circulating a doctored video of Rahul Gandhi and warned the saffron party of legal action if it failed to say sorry.
The party also took legal action against a news channel for showing a video linking Rahul Gandhi’s speech made in Kerala to the killing of a tailor in Rajasthan recently. The channel later apologised for showing the video. The letter marked a shift in the Congress communication strategy, which is undergoing change since Ramesh took over recently.
In a coordinated effort, the grand old party’s social media handles, including those of social media in-charge Supriya Shrinate and others, circulated Ramesh’s letter and the social media posts of the BJP leaders, which riled the Congress. Ramesh’s letter came hours after the party’s media chairman Pawan Khera blamed the BJP for fanning communal tensions to benefit politically.
As per sources, the new strategy seems to strongly defend the party leadership and ideology when faced with coordinated attacks from political rivals and play on the front foot. “We have already initiated appropriate legal action against the original broadcaster. We expect that you and your party colleagues will cease and desist from spreading such falsehoods," stated Ramesh in his letter to BJP president JP Nadda dated July 2, 2022.
Also read: Congress accuses saffron party of having links to Udaipur murder accused, BJP denies
Ramesh warned the saffron party of legal action if Nadda did not issue an apology today. “I am appalled to note that several of your party colleagues have been deliberately and enthusiastically sharing mischievous reportage that occurred on a news channel at 9 PM on July 1st, 2022. The original video was Rahul Gandhi’s comment on the SFI violence in 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,” added Ramesh.
“It was immediately brought to the attention of all concerned that the reportage was false and deliberately misleading. In fact, not a single other channel has presented the clip in such a deliberately fabricated and distorted manner,” he said. Ramesh accused the BJP leaders of amplifying the fake video to defame Rahul Gandhi and stoke communal tensions.
“What is of even greater concern, is that several of your party colleagues, including Rajyavardhan Rathore, MP, Subrat Pathak MP, Kamlesh Saini, MLA and others, have enthusiastically and without verification published and shared the deliberately fabricated and distorted reportage. Despite being cautioned by my party colleagues that the clip was maliciously false and misleading, Rathore persisted with amplifying the same, first deleting and then re-uploading the same,” said Ramesh.
“This leaves no doubt that his actions were deliberate and part of your party’s strategy to defame the former Congress president, to defame the Congress party, and to further polarise an already sensitive, communal situation. The fact that some of your colleagues may have deleted the false reportage later after uploading and sharing is no excuse whatsoever because the damage has already been inflicted,” he added.
