Congress asks Twitter to tag 'toolkit' tweets of 11 Union Ministers as 'manipulated media'

Stepping up its attack on BJP over the alleged "forged" toolkit, Congress on Tuesday asked Twitter to tag the tweets of 11 Union Ministers as "manipulated media". In a letter addressed to top Twitter officials Vijaya Gadde and Jim Baker, Congress communications chairman Randeep Surjewala demanded that urgent action pertaining to the Twitter accounts of Union Ministers Giriraj Singh, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prahlad Joshi, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Thawarchand Gehlot, Harsh Vardhan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Gajendra Shekhawat. According to him, they too circulated the "forged" material.

The microblogging service has already tagged the tweets of BJP leaders Sambit Patra, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Priti Gandhi, Sunil Deodhar, Charu Pragya and Kuljeet Singh Chahal pertaining to the purported Congress toolkit as "manipulated media". The letter read, "Further, it is also a matter of fact that people tend to believe ‘true’ and take on face value, any information that is put up directly by a Union Minister of the Government of India through his/ her official/ verified Twitter account. Hence, it becomes all the more imperative to tag, ‘manipulative media’, on all such tweets made by Ministers of the Government of India on the above referred forged toolkit document created by the BJP". 

Incidentally, this move comes amid the Delhi Police Special Cell serving notice to Rajeev Gowda and Rohan Gupta to join the toolkit probe. It is pertinent to note that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had objected to Twitter using the "manipulated media" tag even as the police is examining the veracity of the toolkit. Maintaining that this dilutes the credibility of Twitter as a neutral and unbiased platform, it asked the microblogging service to remove the aforesaid tag. On the other hand, an FIR was registered against Sambit Patra in Chhattisgarh in connection with the toolkit. 

'Toolkit' controversy

Addressing a press briefing on May 18, Sambit Patra shared the contents of a purported toolkit and slammed Congress' attempts to spread misinformation in the country. He covered sections such as 'Politicising and Allowing Super Spreader Kumbh', 'Questions on PM CARES', 'Special treatment of Gujarat', 'Choosing vanity over people's lives', 'Amplify work of frontal Congress organizations' and 'Prime Minister Modi's image'. The document also urges volunteers to use phrases such as 'Modi strain', ‘Missing’ Amit Shah, ‘Quarantined’ Jaishankar, ‘Sidelined’ Rajnath Singh, ‘Insensitive’ Nirmala Sitharaman. 

Moreover, it talked about magnifying the crisis using images of dead bodies. But, Congress immediately issued a denial and filed a police complaint against the BJP national spokesperson, party chief JP Nadda, Union Minister Smriti Irani, BL Santhosh and others. It alleged that the saffron party sought to divert the attention from the Centre's "mammoth failure" in providing relief to the people of India.

Claiming that BJP forged the letterhead of the AICC Research Department and printed false content on the same, it demanded action against the aforesaid leaders under the relevant sections of the IPC and the IT Act. At the same time, the Sonia Gandhi-led party admitted the authenticity of a 6-page research note put by BJP leaders titled 'Central Vista Redevelopment: Vanity Project Amidst The Pandemic'. AICC Research Department chairman Rajeev Gowda made this revelation in defence of Congress' stance.