The Maharashtra unit of the Congress on Wednesday said the State child rights panel’s notice to party president Rahul Gandhi for ‘disclosing’ the identity of two minor boys, who were victims of an assault, was a bid to divert the attention from the main issue of the attacks on deprived communities.
A video purportedly showing the two minor boys being stripped and beaten up for swimming in a well of a farmer in Jalgaon district had gone viral last week. Mr. Gandhi tweeted about the incident, tagging the video and blaming the BJP and the RSS for ‘rising atrocities’ against backward classes.
Addressing reporters, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan said, “The notice issued by Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights to Mr. Gandhi is a means to divert attention from the main issue of deprived sections of the society being targeted. The Congress party will seek a legal opinion in the matter and clarify its future course of action.” He said that the video of the incident had gone viral much before Rahul Gandhi had tweeted about it. He said even television channels had aired the clip.
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BJP MLA Ram Kadam has demanded that a case be filed against Mr. Gandhi for spreading wrong information leading to animosity between two communities. He demanded that the video be deleted from Mr. Gandhi’s twitter timeline.