A controversy has erupted over a caricature tweeted by the Gujarat BJP after 38 persons were sentenced to death in the 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts case.
After the row, the tweet by the Gujarat BJP handle has been removed by Twitter on the ground that it “violated the rules.”
The caricature showed men wearing skull caps in noose with words “Satyamev Jayate” and “No mercy to those spreading terror.”
The caricature posted on Saturday, a day after the trial court in Ahmedabad pronounced the quantum of sentence to the convicts in the serial blasts case, was circulated widely on social media platforms, sparking controversy and inviting strong reactions.
Several Twitter users called the social media company to remove the tweet that targeted or demonised a particular community.
Bid to polarise: Cong.
“The BJP is trying to polarise using the court judgment in a terror case. We all know that terrorism has no religion, and no one knows it better than the Congress which has lost two former Prime Ministers to it,” said Gujarat Congress spokesman Manish Doshi, who accused the ruling party of playing communal politics to polarise voters in Uttar Pradesh where the Assembly elections were on.
He added that no party should play politics over the court judgments in sensitive cases in which innocent citizens had lost their lives.
However, the ruling party spokesman said there was nothing objectionable in the caricature tweeted by the party. “It is not targeting any community but showing the terrorists who have been sentenced to death by the court,” said Yagnesh Dave, Gujarat BJP’s media cell convener.
According to him, the cartoon or caricature was drawn based on the media reports in which photographs of those who have been convicted were published.
It may be noted that no media reported any picture of the terrorists wearing skull cap as is shown in the caricature posted by the ruling party on Twitter.
