Union Transport Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday threatened to sue activist Shehla Rashid after the former JNU Students’ Union leader alleged that the former along with the RSS were plotting to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Shehla’s tweet had read, “Looks like RSS/Gadkari is planning to assassinate Modi, and then blame it upon Muslims/Communists and then lynch Muslims #RajivGandhiStyle.”
Looks like RSS/Gadkari is planning to assassinate Modi, and then blame it upon Muslims/Communists and then lynch Muslims #RajivGandhiStyle
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) June 9, 2018
An angry Gadkari quickly took to Twitter to label Shehla as anti-social element while threatening to sue her. He wrote, “I would be taking legal action on anti-social elements who have made bizzare comments; attributing personal motives to me, regarding the assassination threat to PM @narendramodi.”
I would be taking legal action on anti-social elements who have made bizzare comments; attributing personal motives to me, regarding the assassination threat to PM @narendramodi
— Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) June 9, 2018
Shehla later tweeted that she was merely trying to be sarcastic. She wrote, “Leader of world’s biggest party gets worked up about a sarcastic tweet. Imagine what an innocent student @UmarKhalidJNU must be going through after a baseless media assault on him & his father by Times Now. Mr. Gadkari, will you also take action against Rahul Shivshankar?”
Leader of world’s biggest party gets worked up about a sarcastic tweet. Imagine what an innocent student @UmarKhalidJNU must be going through after a baseless media assault on him & his father by Times Now.
Mr. Gadkari, will you also take action against Rahul Shivshankar? https://t.co/tNDZLrqOKV
— Shehla Rashid (@Shehla_Rashid) June 9, 2018
The issue of alleged plot to kill Modi has become a top talking point for the Indian media twice after since Karnataka went to polls. The Indian media has reported the alleged threat to kill Modi on 11 times since 2009 with five of them being between October 2013 and April 2014– a period when Modi actively led the BJP’s Lok Sabha campaign.
There’s a suggestion that BJP-supporting media in India rakes up the imaginary issue of threats to Modi’s life every time the BJP finds itself on a sticky wicket electorally. In Its broadcast on 9 June, Times Now had alleged to have accessed a letter that mentioned among others the names of student leader Umar Khalid, independent MLA Jignesh Mevani and Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar.