Former Union Minister and BJP’s MP from Karnataka Anant Kumar Hedge has complained to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against Twitter alleging that it was encouraging anti-national propaganda and demanded an investigation into its activities which he said were harming national interests.
Hegde, whose account was blocked by Twitter on April 24 for allegedly posting “controversial” comments. has, in turn, accused it of “sponsoring” and “accepting” pro-Khalistani comments and not blocking it.
The BJP leader accused Twitter of “discrimination and favouritism” by blocking his account for what he called “exposing Tablighi Jamaat” but, at the same time, taking no action against the account named “Gurupatwant Singh Pannun” promoting the cause of a separate ‘Khalistan’.Hegde said he would not delete his posts which Twitter asked him to do and instead sought to know whether the microblogging site is “allowed to collect revenues from anti-nationals ?.”
In his letter to Prime Minister on April 21 with subject ‘ Paid promotion of anti-national propaganda and campaign with support of Twitter India’, the BJP Lok Sabha MP from Uttara Kannada said he has received a written complaint from former National co-convenor of BJP’s IT cell, Vinit Goenka, about “anti-national” and “paid/promoted campaign by Twitter India” and sought that Twitter be asked to change its policy and prevent anti-India propaganda” on its platform.
Hegde has demanded Twitter should be asked to “declare money/business generated from any suspected anti-India commercial operation “.“As newspaper and television are governed under law of the land, same should be applied here as this is a sponsored activity”, the BJP MP claimed in his letter to the Prime Minister.
Hegde, known for his controversial comments, said there has been “selective targeting” of several pro-India handles, which have been suspended or locked in the past few months.Twitter has asked Hegde to delete his controversial comments to unblock his account.