The Congress Sunday slammed the BJP-led Centre over the arrest of freelance journalist Mandeep Punia from the Singhu border, with get together chief Rahul Gandhi remarking that solely ‘those who fear truth arrest honest scribes’.
Tagging a video purportedly exhibiting Punia being picked up by the police on the border protest web site, the Wayanad MP tweeted in Hindi, “Those who fear truth arrest honest journalists.”
Punia was picked up from the Singhu border for allegedly misbehaving with the police personnel on responsibility on the farmers’ protest web site. Following this, he was arrested on Sunday and a case registered in opposition to him. He has been despatched to 14-day judicial custody.
जो सच से डरते हैं, वे सच्चे पत्रकारों को गिरफ़्तार करते हैं। pic.twitter.com/JIGkUUji92
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) January 31, 2021
Congress common secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra stated journalists reporting on the farmers’ motion are being arrested, instances are being slapped in opposition to them and the web is being snapped in lots of locations. “The BJP government wants to trample upon the voice of the farmers, but they have forgotten that the more you suppress, the more voices will rise against your atrocities,” she stated in a tweet in Hindi.
किसान आंदोलन कवर कर रहे पत्रकारों को गिरफ्तार किया जा रहा है, उनपर मुकदमें किए जा रहे हैं। कई जगहों पर इंटरनेट बंद कर दिया है। भाजपा सरकार किसानों की आवाज को कुचलना चाहती है लेकिन वे भूल गए हैं कि जितना दबाओगे उससे ज्यादा आवाजें आपके अत्याचार के खिलाफ उठेंगी। #LaunchMandeepPunia
— Priyanka Gandhi Vadra (@priyankagandhi) January 31, 2021
Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala addressed PM Modi in a tweet and stated by slapping false instances on the BJP’s behest in opposition to journalists exposing the assault on farmers, and by shutting down cellular web companies at protest websites, “you will not be able to suppress the farmers’ movement and shut out the country’s voice”.
मा. मोदी जी,
भाजपा की शह पर आंदोलनकारी किसानों पर आक्रमण की पोल खोलने वाले पत्रकारों पर झूठे केस दर्ज करके और आंदोलन की जगहों पर मोबाइल इंटरनेट बंद करके आप किसान आंदोलन को दबा नहीं पाओगे, देश की आवाज़ बंद नहीं कर पाओगे। #LaunchMandeepPunia
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) January 31, 2021
Party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate additionally hit out on the authorities in a press convention, saying it’s the 70th day of the protest by farmers and so they have been pressured to sit down on the doorstep of the nationwide capital by an “insensitive, obstinate and stubborn government that itself dug trenches and refused the farmers any entry in Delhi”.
“For anybody who tries to show their plight, their pain, this government will go after them — whether it is people in social life, in political life or journalists. A very young journalist by the name Mandeep Punia was arrested and was presented before the magistrate even before his Defence lawyer could reach,” she stated.
“We strongly condemn the sedition cases they have filed against our own MP Shashi Tharoor or the kind of sedition cases that have been filed against Mrinal Pande, Rajdeep Sardesai, Vinod Jose, Zafar Agha, Paresh Nath and Anant Nath. We condemn it as these are the people who are trying to show the real face of the farmer, who are trying to bring to light the plight of the farmer and instead of standing with them and letting them do their jobs honestly, this government goes after them,” she added.
Tharoor and the six journalists have been booked by the police, in states together with BJP-ruledUttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh and in Delhi the place regulation and order is underneath the Home Ministry, over their allegedly deceptive tweets on the Republic Day violence.
Democracy is being “weakened” with each passing day and establishments are being “destroyed”, Shrinate stated.
Thousands of farmers, principally from Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, have been tenting at border factors of Delhi since November-end, looking for repeal of the three controversial farm legal guidelines and a authorized assure to the minimal assist value system for his or her crops.
(With inputs from PTI)