BENGALURU: In a tweet on Tuesday, BJP national president Amit Shah asked the Congress to “stop intimidating the youth of India”, a reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s supporters who chanted pro-Modi slogans at Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with entrepreneurs on Monday evening.
Rahul’s meeting at Manyata Tech Park was disrupted when Modi’s supporters began shouting slogans, leading to police action.
The state BJP unit has, in a formal complaint to city police commissioner Sunil Kumar, said that the police acted in a high-handed manner by taking techies into custody, questioning them and arresting them without any basis or offence. They called for action against the police officers who behaved like “Congress workers” and sought an investigation against them and also their suspension. Former Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka also called for action against the police officials who took action.
Sources in the Congress countered this, saying that Modi’s supporters came to their meeting to disrupt it and file a complaint to show the party in bad light. The Congress team made a formal complaint to the commissioner too, saying, “A group of politically motivated ‘goons’ gathered at Manyata Tech Park and chanted slogans during an event in which president of the Congress party Rahul Gandhi participated. Rahul Gandhi is an SPG protectee and therefore, it is essential to thoroughly investigate the persons who were behind the exercise, and their antecedents. We are deeply concerned about the possibility of any physical harm to our leader.’’
In his tweet, Shah said, “Hugs for Tukde Tukde gang and arrest of peaceful youth raising pro-Modi slogans? Where are the champions of Free Speech.’’In response, former Congress MP Ramya tweeted, “Dear Amit Shahji, please get someone to translate this to you, it will be like music to your ears” and posted an audio-visual statement of a woman participant who spoke about how the meeting was disrupted by “some persons”.