Harish Rawat to go on a day’s hunger strike on 14 August to protest against blocking of his Twitter account

It seems that the Congress party is under constant Twitter monitoring having been specifically targeted as after Congress’s former chief Rahul Gandhi and six other leaders’ twittee accounts having been blocked today, the Twitter handle of its another veteran leader, national general secretary, CWC member and former Uttarakhand CM Harish Rawat has also been blocked.

According to a big post in Facebook by annoyed senior Congress leader Harish Rawat : It is definitely an attempt to stifle their voice of dissent and democratic rights of free speech and expression. Harish Rawat, who is these days quite proactive in Punjab Congress affairs as well as in Uttarakhand politics, the state likely to go to polls after few months has through his Facebook post expressed his dissent against Twitter and the government on his Twitter handle being blocked after the senior Congress leaders as well as the state Congress president Ganesh Godiyal.

The veteran Congress leader’s detailed post in Hindi says with hashtags # In democracy efforts are being made to silent me. I had tweeted mentioning a Dalit family under a campaign # Mai_Bhi Rahul hun ( I am also Rahul). The Twitter India had blocked my acount – http://www.twitter.com/harishrawatcmuk on the condition that I should delete my tweet in connection with # Mai bhi Rahul hun campaign so as to restart my Twitter acount.

He added : Mr. Rahul Gandhi had gone to meet the Dalit family in order to share their grief but it did not suited the ruling party.

Because lakhs of people had tweeted in favour of this campaign seeking justice for the Dalit girl and the aggrieved family, the countrymen have expressed their resentment to seek justice for the victimised girl.

Some people raised their resentment on line while some offline as it is their constitutional democratic right said Rawat .

On 15 th August, three days from now, Independence Day is arriving. This is India’s national festival. In the year 1947 the countrymen had sought independence from British colonial rule wrote Rawat. While accusing the Twitter management n govt as well Rawat said but unfortunately here, our rights of free speech are being snatched. Is meeting any victimised family a criminal act in democracy ? Is it a sin to become their voice questioned Rawat? Appealing to journalists to raise such issues being an important pillar of demicracy Harish Rawat further said : The journalist friends who are the important fourth pillar of democracy should raise this issue proactively.

He again questioned : Has the twitter_India and India’s Constitution become so weak in democracy that the right to voice our dissent is being snatched from us wrote former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat in his Facebook post.

He further asked has BJP been so frightened due to Rahul’s trending tweet # Mai_ bhi_ Rahul_aap bhi_ Rahul ? He hashtagged Twitter, Rahul Gandhi# etc.

He announced that a day before India’s Independence Day on 14 August, he will undertake a day’s hunger strike in protest against depriving him of his voice of dissent in a democratic setup and blocking of his Twitter acount and that of his leader Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders.

It may be recalled that this morning the Twitter accounts of chief spokesman Congress, Randeep Singh Surjewala, former union ministers Ajay Maken, Jitendra Singh Alwar, chief All India Mahila Congress Sushmita Dev, Mr. Manickam MP etc have been blocked after Rahul Gandhi’s account on 4 th August. The Twitter management has clarified that it is against their official policy to allow tweets of rape victims n their aggrieved families to be published in Twitter. However, the Congress leaders have criticized the govt accusing them of stifling the free speech and voice of dissent seeking justice for an aggrieved family of a 9 yearly old rape victim brutally killed. Shashi Tharoor in a tweet terming the Twitter management as practising double standards n being hypocritical said that what action has it taken when the national BJP spokesman posted a picture of Hathras victim on Twitter and SC commission of the victim’s family on 2 nd August?