In June 2024, following the election results, YouTuber and journalist Ajeet Bharti referred to an interview with actor Naseeruddin Shah during a live session on his channel. Bharti recounted Shah’s experiences of being targeted for his Muslim identity and how he also targeted others in return. Shah suggested that such undercurrents of religious tension existed long before Modi’s tenure, but Modi capitalized on them.
Bharti argued that while Modi never explicitly made incendiary statements against specific communities, such comments were made by leaders of other parties. Bharti claimed that Congress party chief Rahul Gandhi intended to overturn the Ram Mandir verdict to restore Babri. He made this claim following a statement by former Congress leader Acharya Pramod Krishnam a month earlier. On 6 May 2024, Krishnam reported that Gandhi discussed overturning the Ram Mandir decision in a meeting with close aides.
Bharti clarified that he based his statements on Krishnam’s claims and was not making direct accusations against Rahul Gandhi. This context is essential to understanding Bharti’s commentary during the live session.
Rahul Trying Hard To Fuel Fire, Naseer Wants Modi In Skull Cap | विपक्ष लगा हुआ है प्लान बी में https://t.co/44fguy5TGy
— Ajeet Bharti (@ajeetbharti) June 13, 2024
Following this, the Karnataka Congress filed an F.I.R. on Ajeet Bharti, and the Karnataka Police arrived at his residence. However, the High Court rebuked this move with a stay order.
The Congress party urged Karnataka police to arrest Ajeet Bharti for quoting Rahul Gandhi. The High Court rebuked this with a stay order. Now, the party is attempting to pursue him through Tamil Nadu's jurisdiction. #Congress #AjeetBharti #RahulGandhi https://t.co/CdgMnKkneo pic.twitter.com/EXar1GLU4e
— The Times Patriot (@thetimespatriot) July 22, 2024
On 20 July 2024, it came to light that the Tamil Nadu Congress also decided to file a case, and the T.N. Police arrived at his doors. He wrote to social media platform X, “After Karnataka Congress’ and F.I.R., now Tamil Nadu Congress is misusing @tnpoliceoffl. What does filing a case in another state after the alleged incident and stay on the case in which Karnataka High Court has given a stay order indicate? Send the police, I will meet you there.”
In “the post, Bharti shared a notice dated 15 July 2024 in which the Chennai police were seen soliciting information from X about his account details and IP address.
कर्नाटक कॉन्ग्रेस की धमकी और FIR के बाद अब तमिलनाडु कॉन्ग्रेस @tnpoliceoffl का दुरुपयोग कर रही है। जिस केस में कर्नाटक उच्च न्यायालय ने स्थगन का आदेश दे रखा है, उस पर कथित घटना और केस पर स्टे के बाद, वापस दूसरे राज्य में केस करना क्या बताता है?
भेजो पुलिस, मैं वहीं मिलूँगा। pic.twitter.com/nl0fnU6arq
— Ajeet Bharti (@ajeetbharti) July 20, 2024
M. Samuel Diraviam MC, a Tamil Nadu Congress party member, lodged the complaint against Bharti. The complaint alleged that Bharti made ‘false ‘claims’ about Rahul Gandhi in a video shared on the social media X.
In response to this complaint, the Tamil Nadu police registered a case against Bharti under the Indian Penal Code (I.P.C.) Sections 153A and 505 (1)(B). These sections typically deal with promoting enmity between different groups and making statements conducive to public mischief, respectively.
Furthermore, the police are seen to have taken additional steps by requesting X corporation provide detailed information about Ajeet BhaBharti’s account. This includes login and logout details, associated phone number, email ID, details of last activity, and I.P. address.
Notably, Ajeet Bharti only paraphrased a statement attributed to former Congress member Acharya Pramod. According to him, Rahul Gandhi allegedly told his close aides that if Congress formed the government, they would establish a superpower commission to overturn the Ram Mandir decision, drawing parallels to his father and former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s dismissal of the Shah Bano case ruling.
The former Congress member claimed he spent over 32 years serving the party and was present when Gandhi made that statement.
Following the repetition of these claims, Bharti is now facing legal action in Karnataka, a state currently under Congress rule. It is worth noting that Tamil Nadu, another state where Bharti might face consequences, is governed by the D.M.K., an ally of the Congress in the I.N.D.I. Alliance.
In 2023, after D.M.K. Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin made the infamous “eradicate Sanatana Dharma” “remarks, T.N. Police went to great lengths to reach the workplace of journalist Abhijit Majumder. The law enforcement authorities went as far as reaching out to a media house in Noida, actively seeking Abhijit without the issuance of any prior summons. In an X post on 20 December 2023, Abhijit updated that he had been summoned by the Tamil Nadu police for the second time to Chennai, having already attended the first summons. Notably, this action came after an F.I.R. was filed in September and four Tamil Nadu police officers were dispatched to Noida in search of him.
(with inputs from OpIndia)
Subscribe to our channels on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram and get the best stories of the day delivered to you personally.