NEW DELHI, Apr 30: Two political workers, one each from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress, were arrested in Gujarat on Tuesday for allegedly posting a doctored video of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s April 23 speech in Telangana regarding abolition of reservation facilities.
The Gujarat arrests followed the arrest a day ago by the Assam Police of Reetam Singh, a lawyer at the Gauhati High Court currently working as the Congress’ Assam war room coordinator.
Mr Shah appealed for information on the people who were disseminating the doctored video. “If you come across any such fake video anywhere, please inform us about the details of the disseminator. We will take strict action against the culprits,” the Minister said in a post on X.
“The Congress has now resorted to misleading citizens with fake videos out of panic and fear of defeat. The right to reservations in the country belongs to SC (Scheduled Castes), ST (Scheduled Tribes) and OBC (Other Backward Classes) brothers and sisters, and as long as the BJP government is in office, no one can change it. The INDIA Alliance has given reservations to Muslims, reducing the share of SCs, STs and OBCs. Congress is misleading people by editing a speech of mine in which I committed to abolishing the unconstitutional reservations for Muslims. Directions have been issued to the police to address this issue as per the law,” Mr Shah said.
Since April 28, the police in Delhi, Assam, Maharashtra and Gujarat have filed four separate cases in connection with the video. Most persons named in the First Information Reports (FIRs) are Opposition party workers who shared the post on social media platforms X and Facebook. The police is yet to arrest the person who created the video.
While in the doctored video, Mr Shah is heard saying that the BJP intends to eradicate reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs, in the original video he says the party intends to remove the 4% reservation for Muslims in Telangana. The Delhi police have summoned the Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy, who is also the Telangana Congress president, as the video was shared from the handle of the Telangana Congress on April 27.
(Manas Dasgupta)
