Rahul Gandhi is well known for being in the spotlight for his lame publicity stunts. In the last few months, he tried to stir multiple controversies which ultimately proved to be a failure. However, the publicity stunt of him sharing a picture of the rape victim’s family on twitter has landed him in hot waters, as earlier Twitter temporarily locked his account and now, the victim’s parents deny giving consent for sharing their picture.
During a conversation with Times Now, the Mother of the alleged rape victim from Delhi had revealed that no permission was sought from her by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi prior to sharing her image on social media. “We have not given consent to share the photos or reveal her (the victim) identity to anyone except the court,” “Neither I, nor my husband signed any papers,” the mother said. She further clarifies that her only concern is that her daughter should get justice and the perpetrators get a death sentence for the crime.
#Exclusive | Row over #Twitter locking #RahulGandhi's account after he tweeted the picture of the #Delhi victim's parents. Victim’s mother speaks to TIMES NOW; says, ‘didn’t know that #RahulGandhi shared my photo’. She denies signing any ‘consent form’.
Priyank with info. pic.twitter.com/3dSBeidz23
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) August 17, 2021
Ironically on 14th August, in an attempt to get Rahul Gandhi’s twitter handle unlocked, Congress’ account ‘INC_Television’ had tweeted that the parents had given a written consent for sharing their image; “राहुल गांधी के पक्ष में उतरीं दुष्कर्म पीड़िता की मां, कहा-फोटो ट्वीट करने से उन्हें कोई आपत्ति नही। @TwitterIndia #RahulGandhi
राहुल गांधी के पक्ष में उतरीं दुष्कर्म पीड़िता की मां, कहा – फोटो ट्वीट करने से उन्हें कोई आपत्ति नही। @TwitterIndia#RahulGandhi
— INC TV (@INC_Television) August 14, 2021
The BJP leaders also launched a fresh attack on Gandhi, calling him “insensitive”, and demanded that his Twitter account should be locked again. “Rahul Gandhi has lost credibility and is a habitual liar. The public has locked his political account, now Twitter should also lock his account,” party spokesperson Sambit Patra said.
It is interesting to note that the day after Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account was temporarily locked; the Congress party started protesting against Twitter India and dared the micro-blogging platform to lock its account. Soon, Congress leaders such as Randeep Singh Surjewala, AICC general secretary Ajay Maken, Assam in-charge and former Union minister Jitendra Singh and Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev shared the same photograph on Twitter.
The opposition party posted on Twitter which read, “@TwitterIndia lock our accounts, we challenge you. Nothing will stop us from fighting for justice & exposing the truth,” along with #मैं_भी_Rahul or I am Rahul.
However, this protest by the Congress leaders resulted in their accounts also being temporarily locked.
The microblogging platform maintained that it “impartially” enforces its rules and terms of service. Now, while Twitter has unlocked Rahul Gandhi’s account, he and his party have yet again landed themselves in an embarrassing situation for spreading white lies. Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter adventurism seems to be over. Yet, trying to politicize a sensitive issue that shook the whole nation is indeed a shameful act and revealing the victim’s family’s identity to earn some brownie points is illegal. It’s high time Rahul Gandhi becomes aware of the law of the land and stop pulling cheap publicity stunts for some extra brownie points.