Zee News' primetime show Daily News & Analysis (DNA) on Friday aired a video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi talking about the vandalisation of his office in Kerala's Wayanad and passed it off as his remarks on the Udaipur beheading incident.
In the viral clip, anchor Rohit Ranjan claimed that Gandhi spoke about the Udaipur case and called the accused "children". “While calling the accused from the Udaipur killing as children, he (Gandhi) said that he is not angry with them,” Rajan added.
Later, the video was shared by several BJP leaders including former Union minister Rajyavardhan Rathore.
Congress, meanwhile, has threatened to take legal action against them if the saffron party fails to apologise.
Jairam Ramesh's letter to JP Nadda:
In a letter to BJP chief JP Nadda, Congress general secretary in-charge communication Jairam Ramesh said he was appalled to note that several BJP leaders have been deliberately and enthusiastically sharing "mischievous" reportage that occurred on a news channel on Friday.
"The original video was Shri. Rahul Gandhi's comment on the SFI violence on his Wayanad office but it was deliberately and mischievously doctored to appear as if it was a comment on the heinous murder of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur," Ramesh said.
It was immediately brought to the attention of all concerned that the reportage was false and deliberately misleading, he said.
"What is of even greater concern, is that several of your party colleagues, including Rajyavardhan Rathore, MP, Subrat Pathak MP, Kamlesh Saini, MLA and others, have enthusiastically and without verification published and shared the deliberately fabricated and distorted reportage," Ramesh said in his letter.
"Despite being cautioned by my party colleagues that the clip was maliciously false and misleading, Rathore persisted with amplifying the same, first deleting and then re-uploading the same," he said.
This leaves no doubt that Rathore's actions were deliberate and part of your party's strategy to defame the former Congress president, the party and to further polarise an already sensitive, communal situation, Ramesh alleged.
''The fact that some of your colleagues may have deleted the false reportage later after uploading and sharing is no excuse whatsoever because the damage has already been inflicted,'' he said.
"We have already initiated appropriate legal action against the original broadcaster. We expect that you and your party colleagues will cease and desist from spreading such falsehoods," Ramesh said in his communication to Nadda.
"Furthermore, I expect that you will immediately issue an appropriate apology on behalf of your colleagues who have acted with such reckless disregard towards the truth.
"If this apology is not issued today, we will take appropriate legal action against your party and its leaders who insist and persist in using social media in such a blatantly irresponsible and criminal manner," Ramesh warned.
Protests outside Zee News' offices in Mumbai and Noida
Congress on Saturday protested outside the offices of Zee News in Noida and Mumbai for spreading fake news against former party chief Rahul Gandhi.
Zee News issues apology
Zee News on Saturday issued an apology for misleadingly airing unrelated remarks by Rahul Gandhi as his statement on the Udaipur killing.
Meanwhile, the BJP is yet to respond.
(With PTI inputs)
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