Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi Wednesday expressed anguish over the lynching of a Hyderabad man in Karnataka and said there seemed to be a sinister design to use the social media to “poison our collective conscience as a society” in the run-up to the 2019 general elections. Gandhi said he was deeply saddened by the tragic death of Mohammad Azam, who was lynched near Bidar in Karnataka on July 13 even as the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, on his instructions, met the victim’s family and gave Rs 2.5 lakh as a relief.
“The loss of an innocent life due to rumours fuelled by social media must be condemned in the strongest manner possible,” Gandhi said in a letter to Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy.
“In the run-up to the general elections next year, there seems to be a sinister design to use social media to poison our collective conscience as a society,” he said.
The use of social media to target minorities and other marginalised groups needs to be exposed, he said.
“The use of this medium to largely target members of minorities and other marginalised groups needs to be exposed and fought against,” the Congress president said.
Gandhi asked Reddy to take up the issue at public forums, besides extending support to the family of the deceased.
“While this unfortunate incident occurred in Karnataka, we must step up our efforts to fight against such incidents in Telangana,” Gandhi said in the letter.
As per his directive, a party delegation led by Reddy met Azam’s family here today and gave them Rs 2.50 lakh as financial assistance.
“On behalf of the Telangana Congress party, we have a financial support of Rs 2.50 lakh,” Reddy told PTI.
A social media video, wrongly identifying Hyderabad techie Mohammad Azam Usmansab as a child lifter, led to his lynching near Bidar on July 13, police had said. The TPCC president said his delegation assured Azam’s family that the education of the child of the deceased would be taken care of.
Reddy demanded that strict punishment is meted out to the culprits and that the Telangana and Karnataka governments provide all support to the family of the deceased. A letter from Gandhi was handed over to Azam’s father, he added.