AIR draws flak for anti-Rahul tweet, deletes it

NEW DELHI: A tweet by All India Radio targeting Rahul Gandhi for his RSS remarks kicked up a row last night with Congress dubbing it as "unpardonable" and "shameful", and asking Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu whether the public broadcaster was being allowed to propogate the saffron agenda. In a series of tweets, party chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewela reacted sharply to AIR's action, saying though the comments were later deleted, the broadcaster was caught sponsoring RSS agenda. Surjewala tagged the All India Radio tweet which said, "Why he got scared earlier. How he became daring to defame #RSS. He should stick to comments #RahulrattlesRSS." "All India Radio hurriedly deleted the outrageous tweet but caught red-handed sponsoring saffron propaganda. Unprecedented, unheard of that official broadcaster should attack Mr Rahul Gandhi! Shameful & unpardonable. "Does Information & Broadcasting Minister @MVenkaiahNaidu take orders from the RSS for tweets from AIR? So now All India Radio has officially become His Masters' Voice? So rattled by #RahulRattlesRSS???" he tweeted. After deleting the earlier tweet, AIR put another, saying "The said tweet has been deleted on the direction of DG News as it did not conform to editorial standards of AIR." Earlier in the day, Rahul Gandhi told the Supreme Court he stood by every word he had said at an election rally in 2014 about people associated with the RSS being behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi and that he was prepared to face trial in the defamation case filed against him by a Sangh functionary in a Maharashtra court. Rahul Gandhi then withdrew the appeal filed by him against the Bombay High Court verdict refusing to quash the defamation case and summons issued to him by the trial court in Bhiwandi in Maharashtra's Thane district. In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court a few days ago, the Congress vice president had said he had not blamed RSS as an institution for Gandhi's assassination.