Video showing Madhya Pradesh CM as Angad and MP Congress chief Kamal Nath as Ravan goes viral
BHOPAL: A morphed video showing chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as angad (key member of Ram’s monkey army) and newly appointed MP Congress chief Kamal Nath as demon king Ravan went viral on Tuesday, triggering fresh round of war of words between the ruling BJP and the principal opposition party in assembly poll-bound Madhya Pradesh.
While the Congress has submitted a complaint against state BJP IT cell in-charge Shivraj Singh Dabi, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan and state BJP president Rakesh Singh in the matter, the ruling BJP has accused the opposition party of running away from issue based politics.
The one minute long video which was reportedly tweeted by Shivraj Singh Dabi (who claims to be state in-charge BJP’s IT, Website and Social Media Department) on Monday evening, went viral across multiple social media platforms on Tuesday.
The video begins with excerpts of BJP national president Amit Shah’s recent speech at BJP workers meeting in Bhopal, where Shah is seen telling party workers that BJP and its government in MP are like the foot of Angad, which cannot be dislodged by anyone.
Subsequently the morphed video shows Shivraj Singh Chouhan dressed as Angad smiling with his foot firmly perched on the ground in the court of demon king Ravan. The morphed video shows Kamal Nath dressed as Ravan and other Congress leaders, including MP Congress Election Campaign Committee chief Jyotiraditya Scindia, newly appointed state party working president Jeetu Patwari and ex-MPCC chief Arun Yadav among the courtiers of the demon king.
In the morphed video, Ravan’s courtiers are seen making failed attempts to dislodge Angad’s foot from the ground and lastly Ravan too fails to dislodge Angad’s foot.
As the background song in the video is the same song which was played in Ramanand Sagar’s TV opera Ramayana, it seems that the video of the popular TV serial has been morphed to trigger a political controversy in the state.
Taking strong objection to the video showing faces of its leaders, a state Congress team submitted a complaint to MP police’s cyber cell in Bhopal on Tuesday. The team led by JP Dhanopiya alleged that the morphed video was first posted on social media by the MP IT Cell in-charge Shivraj Singh Dabi at around 7 pm on Monday.
“Posting of the morphed video on social media by BJP leader Shivraj Singh Dabi amounted to disrespect to the sacred Ramayana as well as defaming senior Congress leaders by showing them in CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s feet. Such an act couldn’t have been done by Dabi without the permission of the MP CM and MP BJP president Rakesh Singh, owing to which a complaint has been submitted to state police cyber cell for lodging a case against all the three BJP leaders, including CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan,” said Congress state spokesperson NS Saluja.
Reacting to the Congress’s complaint, state BJP spokesperson Rajnish Agrawal denied any BJP role in entire episode. “Congress doesn’t believe in politics based on issues like development and governance, which is why it’s raking such episodes,” said Agrawal.
Agrawal, however, admitted that Shivraj Singh Dabi is a BJP member. “Congress is free to complain to police about any individual, but dragging the CM and state BJP chief’s name in the complaint is hilarious.”
On May 4, while addressing the gathering of BJP workers in Bhopal, BJP national president Amit Shah had compared the BJP and its government in MP as ‘Angad’s foot’ which cannot be dislodged by anyone.