Political parties and social organisations have expressed shock and condemned the detention and interrogation of a local journalist Rajneesh Sharma for his adverse post against Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on social media..
Sharma, a journalist based in Mandi town, was arrested on Thursday for posting comments on Facebook with an intention to defame the Chief Minister, a police official said.
On a complaint of Congress leader and former DCC President Puran Chand, the police arrested Sharma under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Aam Aadmi Party spokesperson lavan Thakur said the action of the Congress Government was like those of fascists and dictators and warning to the users of Face-book that they should refrain from criticising the Chief Minister.
BJP State media advisor, Praveen Sharma, has condemned the Chief Minister for behaving like an autocratic king and not a duly elected Chief Minister. “He should refrain from gagging the press”, he warned, adding the Chief Minister had no tolerance even for fair criticism.
The BJP leader reminded that many Congress leaders, including a chief Parliamentary secretary had been writing adverse and ugly comments in the social network against none other than the Prime Minister, but we never took cognisance of the foolish comments.
Bhupinder Singh, CPM district President, said criticism on the social media was a common practice and the way Mandi police has overreacted to a petty matter was disgusting and agonising and it must apologise for the avoidable harassment to a reporter. “Needless to say that the freedom of speech in this country was guaranteed under the constitution,” he said.