New Delhi: Congress leader Pawan Khera on Monday sent a legal notice to Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for pulling down his April 12 tweet on the surge in COVID cases. Khera's tweet questioned Modi govt's silence allowing mass gatherings at Kumbh Mela and election rallies when COVID cases were worsening.
On Twitter, Khera said, "My legal notice to @rsprasad @OfficeOfRSP& @Twitter for pulling down of my tweet exposing double standards on #KumbhMela & #tablighijamaat."
The Congress leader has also uploaded the notice sent by his lawyer to Prasad in this context.
His advocate Karan Sharma said withholding his client's tweet is an attempt to muzzle his voice and nothing more than the abuse of regulatory powers and violation of Article 19(1) of the Indian constitution which guarantees the right to freedom of speech to citizens.
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"It has been stated in the email from twitter-legalgtwitter.com that "In the interest of transparency, we are writing to inform you that Twitter has received a legal removal demand from the Government of India regarding your Twitter account, @Pawankhera, that claims the following content violates India's Information Technology Act, 2000," the notice read.
The notice read, " It is brought to your notice that withholding tweets and threatening change in status of the Twitter account of my client is nothing more than the abuse of regulatory power and also an attempt to scuttle the voice of the opposition which is completely in violation of Freedom of Speech as guaranteed by Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution of India. Such acts are also in violation of Article 21 of the Constitution of India as it deprives my client of his personal liberty to express his views in the interest of the country and its people."
It added, "My client posted a tweet questioning the Government of India for allowing mass gatherings at Kumbh Mela which was taking place in Haridwar, Uttrakhand. My client further questioned the silence of people on the large gatherings during election rallies. My client also questioned the double standards of public criticism of Tabligh jamaat people who were blamed for spreading coronavirus last year but maintenance of complete silence of the government and people on huge gather-ings at Kumbh Mela in Haridwar."
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The Central govt asked Twitter and other social media platforms to remove about 100 posts and URLs that were critical of the handling of the current medical crisis or spreading fake news around the pandemic.
Government sources said the IT Ministry, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Home Affairs, asked the social media platforms to remove the posts and URLs (uniform resource locators) to "prevent obstructions in the fight against the pandemic” and disruption of public order due to the said posts.
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