Sharad Pawar was recently caught publicly sharing false information, or simply said, lying about the whereabouts of controversy-surrounded Maharashtra Home Minister and senior NCP leader Anil Deshmukh. Upon being called out by a section of media covering the NCP patriarch’s press conference, Sharad Pawar chastised the media for diverting the issue. However, that is not the end of it all. Now, the NCP – a core constituent of the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in Maharashtra, has resorted to social media vigilantism, filing brazen police complaints against the citizens for exercising their free speech rights.
The Pune Rural Police has filed an FIR against unidentified persons in connection with an alleged objectionable tweet about the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar. BJP leader Suresh Nakhua has revealed that social media user Vedashree is one of the persons against whom the FIR has been lodged. Vedashree had quoted a tweet posted by columnist Shefali Vaidya in which she had mocked Sharad Pawar, saying, “Look at his frustration, as if he has been made to sit on a hot pan…thoroughly enjoyed it.”
“The content in both the tweet and comment is of objectionable nature. We have launched a probe into these accounts,” said the officer. The FIR has been registered under Indian Penal Code sections pertaining to making statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes. The said FIR has been registered at Baramati Taluka police station by Abhijit Bhanudas Jadhav, an NCP office-bearer. According to the Indian Express, an officer from the police station said the complainant approached the police station about an objectionable tweet by a user in connection to a press statement recently given by Pawar and also about a comment on that tweet.
Therefore, if the recent developments are anything to go by, free Indian citizens are now not permitted to speak against the Maha Vikas Aghadi government and its various constituents, no matter how corrupt, criminal or inept they are. If they do decide to speak against the likes of Sharad Pawar, they would be met with harassment by Maharashtra police, who will without any merit, act merely as obedient staffers to the MVA government.
Read more: Sharad Pawar left with no answers as he gets caught lying while trying to save Anil Deshmukh
During the infamous press conference, meanwhile, Pawar while launching a passionate defence of Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh, claimed that Deshmukh from 5-15 February was admitted in a hospital in Nagpur due to Covid-19. Pawar said, “Alexis Hospital in Nagpur has issued a certificate stating that he was undergoing treatment for Coronavirus from February 5-15. He was discharged on February 15. Thereafter, he was advised home quarantine till February 27.” However, contrary to Pawar’s claims, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh had addressed a press conference on 15th February — the day on which Deshmukh was supposed to be in home quarantine, according to the NCP supremo.
Frustrated and annoyed with the power of social media in exposing lies and falsities, the NCP seems to have taken to muzzling the voices of ordinary citizens for merely trying to air their views in a funny and humorous manner.