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A social media post by Karnataka BJP posted on X suggesting Congress appeasement of Muslims was deleted on Wednesday, a day after the Election Commission sent the microblogging platform a request to take down the “objectionable” post.
The post was no longer visible on Wednesday, with a message saying “this page doesn’t exist”. According to sources in the ED, the request was lodged on X on Tuesday and the poll panel was informed when the post was taken down.
The post underlined the BJP’s frequent attacks on the Congress, alleging the party wanted to benefit Muslims at the cost of Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).
Posted on May 4, the post in Kannada included an animated video depicting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramiah. The video showed a nest with three eggs labelled SC, ST, and OBC, into which another larger egg labelled ‘Muslims’ is placed by Rahul Gandhi. After the eggs hatch, Rahul’s character is shown feeding ‘funds’ to the ‘Muslim’ hatchling, which ends up growing bigger and displacing the other hatchlings from the nest.
On Tuesday, the EC asked X to take down the post immediately after it found it was in violation of the Model Code of Conduct. An FIR was registered with Karnataka police and the state’s chief election officer, through the nodal officer appointed under the Information Technology Act, 2000, asking social media platform X to take down the post on May 5.
Sources in the EC said the post was in violation of the Representation of the People Act, in which “corrupt practices” are defined as promotion of enmity between communities, castes and races.
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