Twitter is openly challenging government’s rules regarding fake news, but Ashwini Vaishnaw seems hardly concerned

Reportedly, the micro-blogging site, led by Indian origin Parag Aggarwal on Sunday removed a cartoon posted by BJP Gujarat, which represented the court order awarding death sentence to 38 convicts in the 2008 Ahmedabad bomb blast case.  

The cartoon depicted Islamic terrorists wearing skull caps hanging by the noose. In the background, there were two more sketches in that cartoon. One was of the bomb blasts and the other was that of a court building with the Indian flag on it.  

BJPs social media team captioned the cartoon by writing, “Satyamev Jayate” which means “Truth only triumphs”. This slogan is there on the emblem of the government of India. The caption further reads, “Those who spread terror, will not be spared.” 

As reported extensively by TFI, the 2008 Ahmedabad serial bomb blasts were carried out by banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen and led to the death of 50 innocent civilians. The bombs were detonated across Gujarat’s capital within one hour and wreaked havoc across the country.  

Incidentally, the 38 convicts happened to be from a specific religion, and the cartoon simply represented the same. The cartoon was published a day after the court gave the verdict.  

Read More: Now that Ahemdabad blast convicts have got death penalty, it’s time to revisit Indian Mujahideen 

A terror apologist masquerading as a journalist accuses Harsha of being a terrorist

While Twitter removed the cartoon, a so-called journalist named CJ Werleman dubbed lynched Bajrang Dal activist Harsha a terrorist. On Sunday night, Harsha was lynched by a mob of Islamists who were outraged after the devout 26-year old Hindu appealed for the implementation of the Uniform Civil Code, mentioned in the Indian constitution.  

However, instead of calling out the Islamists who killed the innocent Hindu, a rabid hatemonger in CJ levelled fake accusations by remarking, “A terrorist belonging to the Hindu extremist group #BajrangDal, which carried out a wave of terrorist attacks against Muslims in Tripura in November, was killed in Karnataka – last night.” 

As soon as CJ’s vitriol-laden tweet for the departed soul went viral, Director General of Police (DGP) Karnataka cleared the allegations. The DGP said Harsha had no connection to incidents of Tripura or terrorism. 

CJ is a hatemonger who hates Hindus

It is pertinent to note that CJ is said to be employed on the payroll of Pakistan’s ISI. In August 2021 when the Islamist group Taliban took over Afghanistan, Werleman was caught spreading Taliban propaganda.  

Even as terrifying images of people falling off the aircraft as they tried to flee Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover appeared, Werleman was busy claiming how not a single civilian was attacked by the Islamist group. 

Werleman has been accused by Arabs to be in bed with the radical Islamists who bat for the Muslim brotherhood as well. Werleman is also known for his anti-Semitic content. 

Last year, he was taken to the cleaners by former Indian pacer Venkatesh Prasad for unnecessarily bringing the Hindutva angle into the World Test Championship Final between India and New Zealand.  

Mind you, Werleman wasn’t only mocking those believing in the Hindutva philosophy but rather cleverly, he was showing his racist tendencies towards the Indians. He tweeted, “I’m rooting for New Zealand in the ICC Test Championship Final because imagining 500 million Hindutva extremists being happy, even for a second, makes me miserable”. 

However, Prasad wasn’t the one to take the jibe lying down and shut slam the reporter by tweeting, “Whoever wins is fine, but what a sad low and miserable life this man is. The fact that this man is given an opportunity to write in publications speaks poorly of the publications. Get well soon Mr Miserable” 

The government needs to act strict and straighten twitter

Compare Twitter’s dictatorial approach of removing an innocuous yet truthful cartoon to pampering CJs false accusation tweet, and one can understand how the American company and its user policy are skewed towards one end of the political spectrum. CJs tweet is still up and garnering traction. 

Despite knowing the workings of Twitter, the IT minister has been a mute spectator. The netizens have been demanding Ashwini Vaishnaw to take decisive action. 

If one cannot publish a cartoon that shows the truth in its bare form, that platform need not operate in India. We, Indians for one, do not need such a platform.

The purpose of the new IT laws was to quash Twitter and its undemocratic behaviour in a democratic country like India. And if the ministry cannot take any action, PM Modi should consider another round of cabinet reshuffle.