Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has come down heavily on Twitter for blocking his Twitter handle. He alleged in a statement here on Friday that by shutting down his account, Twitter is interfering in the political process of the country. Twitter had blocked seven handles of various units of the Congress and 23 leaders of the party allegedly for revealing the identity of the Dalit girl who was raped and murdered in Delhi.
Gandhi said a company is making its business to define the country's politics. He said he doesn't like such an intervention as a politician. "This is an attack on the democratic structure of the country. This is not an attack on Rahul Gandhi. This is not you know simply shutting Rahul Gandhi down. I have 19-20 million followers. You are denying them the right to an opinion. That’s what you are doing," he said.
He said the action is not only patently unfair, but also the breaching of the idea that Twitter is a neutral platform. "And for the investors, this is a very dangerous thing because taking sides in the political contest has repercussions for Twitter," he added.
He maintained that democracy is under attack. "We are not allowed to speak in Parliament. The media is controlled. And I thought there was a ray of light where we could put what we thought on Twitter. But obviously, that's not the case. It’s obvious now that Twitter is actually not a neutral, objective platform. It is a biased platform. It's something that listens to what the Government of the day says," he said.
"Are we going to allow companies just because they are beholden to the Government of India to define our politics for us? Is that what this is going to come to? Or are we going to define our politics on our own? That's the real question here," he added.