Rahul Gandhi lands in trouble for disclosing the identity of two minor victims of physical assault.

Rahul Gandhi’s obsession with Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) is legendary. This time again, he has come up with an absurd rant against the RSS.  Rahul Gandhi on Friday held RSS and the BJP responsible for increasing atrocities against the Dalits across the country. Rahul Gandhi’s baseless accusations came after two Dalit boys in Maharashtra’s Wakadi village in Jalgaon district were allegedly beaten up for swimming in a well belonging to a farmer of Maharashtra. After the incident, families filed a police complaint and the police acted swiftly and arrested the perpetrators.

However, Rahul Gandhi decided to use the incident for political mileage. He blamed the BJP and the RSS for the inhumane incident. Rahul Gandhi in a tweet on Friday said, “The sole crime of these Dalit children was they were taking a dip in an ‘upper caste’ well. Humanity is struggling to save its dignity.” He further added, “If we don’t raise our voices against this politics of hate and poison of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the BJP, history would not forgive us.” Rahul Gandhi also shared the video of the incident in which the boys can be seen mercilessly beaten by some men. He disclosed the identity of the minors to the world.

The video went viral on social media. Maharashtra commission for protection of child right issued notice to Rahul Gandhi under section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act and Section 23 of the POCSO Act. The notice reads, “The commission has received application dated 19th June, 2018 praying that action be initiated against you for publication of the video of the Child Victims of the case mentioned in the aforesaid subject on your Twitter handle.” According to section 74 of POCSO act, disclosing the identity of the victim is a punishable offense.

According to Section 74 of POCSO Act- (1) No report in any newspaper, magazine, news-sheet or audio-visual media or other forms of communication regarding any inquiry or investigation or judicial procedure, shall disclose the name, address or school or any other particular, which may lead to the identification of a child in conflict with law or a child in need of care and protection or a child victim or witness of a crime, involved in such matter, under any other law for the time being in force, nor shall the picture of any such child be published: Provided that for reasons to be recorded in writing, the Board or committee, as the case may be, holding the inquiry may permit such disclosure, if in its opinion such disclosure is in the best interest of the child. (2) The Police shall not disclose any record of the child for the purpose of character certificate or otherwise in cases where the case has been closed or disposed of. (3) Any person contravening the provisions of sub-section (1) shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months or fine which may extend to two lakh rupees or both. If charged under the POCSO Act, Rahul Gandhi can face six months of jail term.

Rahul Gandhi also might be asked to take down his twitter post and issue an apology for his irresponsible and insensitive act. However, the Congress was shameless enough to defend the immature and insensible act of Rahul Gandhi. Congress party said instead of the video, people should focus on the crime. What kind of nonsense defence is this? Does it give a right to Rahul Gandhi to disclose the identity of the victims? It is illegal to do so.  Rahul Gandhi is an elected representative and people expect him to act in a more responsible manner. He unnecessarily tried to give caste angle to the incident whereas the reality is that the well is owned by a person of the tribal community. Earlier also the owner of the farm had repeatedly warned these boys to not swim into the well as it is very deep and unsafe for swimming and also the water of the well is used for drinking purposes.

This incident shows how much the Congress party is desperate to come back to power, they can go to the extent of exploiting inhumane treatment of minor boys to score political points. In the interest of the country these people should always be kept out of the power.