The Election Commission of India on Tuesday asked social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to take down a video post by the official handle of the Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party, calling it violative of the extant legal framework.
The video, which has drawn severe condemnation online and off it, appeared to target the Congress party on the issue of Mulsim quota that the BJP has sought to underline in its attack against the Opposition party at the Centre.
The Congress had moved a complaint with the Karnataka electoral officer on Sunday, May 5.
The EC’s action came hours after the Karnataka police issued a notice to X asking it to take down the post which featured party MP Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The video shows a character depicting Rahul Gandhi replacing a large egg labelled as ‘Muslims’ in a nest that had three eggs labelled as ‘SC’, ‘ST’ and ‘OBC’. The character depicting Rahul is then shown feeding the large egg labelled as ‘Muslims’ with funds after the eggs hatch. The Muslim hatchling, wearing a skull cap, then goes on to remove other eggs from the nest as it gets bigger.
The video post appeared to draw from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attack against the Congress, accusing it of wanting to carve out a separate Muslim quota out of the existing reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs.