Patna: Complaint filed against Rahul Gandhi for posters depicting him as Lord Rama

PATNA: A complaint case was filed against Congress president Rahul Gandhi and two others before CJM court in Patna on Friday for hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus after the Congress president was depicted as Lord Rama in several posters which had surfaced just before Jan Akanksha Rally in state capital scheduled to be organised on February 3.

Apart from the Gandhi scion, party’s state president Madan Mohan Jha and worker Vijay Kumar Singh were also made accused in the case. Singh is the one who had got the posters printed and erected them as several places including outside Congress party office at Sadakat Ashram on January 29 looking at the much awaited solo rally of Congress which is taking place in the state after a gap of three decades.

The complaint case was filed by one Rakesh Dutt Mishra who claims to be the general secretary of Bhartiya Jan Kranti Dal.

In the posters, Singh had taken a dig on BJP with quote “Woh Ram naam japte rahe, tum banker Ram jiyo re! (They continue chanting Lord Ram’s name, but you live your life like Ram).

In his complaint petition (a copy is with TOI), Mishra had cited that he with three people were commuting through the Bailey Road when they had spotted a large poster near Income Tax roundabout in which Rahul was shown as Lord Ram while the photos of two the accused persons were also their on the poster.

Mishra had further alleged in his petition that the poster was a shock for him as Rahul is a follower of other religion and it had hurt the religious sentiments of entire Hindu society including the complainant who is a conservative Hindu. He alleged that wide spread circulation of poster’s photographs by electronic and print media had further the situation and is a conspiracy to hurt Hindu sentiments and create unrest in the society.

Mishra had also alleged that depicting Rahul as Lord Rama was also a threat to communal harmony. He had further alleged that the rest two accused were contacted by him to remove the posters but instead they had become furious and rejected his request.

Mishra had further urged the court that he even tried lodging an FIR in this connection but police advised him to move court.

This was not the first time that the Congress president was depicted as Lord Rama. Party workers had affixed posters of Rahul depicting him as Lord Rama armed with bow and arrow targeting PM Narendra Modi, who was shown as Ravana, at Amethi in Uttar Pradesh a fortnight back. Rahul had also been depicted as Lord Krishna and Arjuna in Congress posters at Lucknow and Raebareli in UP.