Andhra Congress suspends man who fried 'Twitter bird' for blocking Rahul Gandhi's account

Miffed with its cadres' bizarre protest, Andhra Pradesh Congress (APCC) on Saturday, suspended GV Sriraj who had fried a 'Twitter bird' as a token of protest against Twitter for locking the account of Rahul Gandhi. Taking action against this act, APCC chairman L Eswara Rao issued the order suspending Sriraj from party primary membership with immediate effect. The order says that Sriraj's action has tarnished the image of Congress party, and that he has used Rahul Gandhi's name in a way that degrades the values of Congress party.

Sriraj fries 'Twitter'

In the video accessed by Republic Media Network, the workers of the Andhra Pradesh Congress can be heard referring to Twitter as they fry the bird. "You Twitter-you have done a mistake by blocking Rahul Gandhi's Twitter account and not promoting our tweets. So, we are frying this and, sending it to the headquarters in Gurgaon and Delhi," said one of the workers, reportedly identified as the son of former party MP Harsha Kumar - Sriraj. The ex-MP's son had earlier thrown his motorcycle into Hussain Sagar lake to protest against the rising fuel prices.

Twitter blocks official INC account, senior party leaders

Last week, Twitter blocked the official account of the Indian National Congress and 5000 other leaders' accounts for 'violation of rules', including Rahul Gandhi himself. Hitting out at Twitter, Congress claimed that the microblogging site is acting under government pressure. Later, Twitter asserted that its rules are enforced judiciously and impartially for everyone using the platform and that action had been taken several hundred Tweets that posted an image violating the site's rules. Gandhi was blocked after his tweet revealed the identity of the alleged Delhi rape victim's parents, thereby violating the platform's rules and policies. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have now removed the post.

In retaliation, Gandhi said, "A company is making its business to define our politics and as a politician, I don't like that. This is an attack on the democratic structure of the country. This is not an attack on Rahul Gandhi, this is not simply shutting Rahul Gandhi down. It is obvious now that Twitter is not neutral, but is a biased platform and listens to government of India".

Delhi rape case

On August 1, in Delhi's Old Nangal village, a 9-year-old girl, was allegedly raped and murdered by a priest and three others while fetching water from a nearby crematorium. The four accused later approached the victim's mother half an hour later, claiming that she died after being electrocuted while getting water from the cooler. They not only dissuaded the mother from calling the police citing that the doctors "will steal her daughter's organs" but also allegedly made her agree that it was better to cremate the body. After the parents filed a complaint, police arrested the four accused for murder, rape, criminal intimidation under sections of IPC, POCSO Act and  SC/ST Act.