In another dramatic event, a journalist who made the video of students being forced to eat roti with salt at a government school in Uttar Pradesh, has been booked for defaming the state government.
Pawan Jaiswal was the journalist, who had made the video before handing it over to news agency ANI. According to NDTV, an FIR filed by the Block Education Officer, a government official, has named Jaiswal and a representative of the local village head for conspiring to defame the government headed by Yogi Adityanath.
According to News18, two more people who alerted Jaiswal of the act, including the representative of the concerned village, have been booked for ‘cooking up’ the story and for ‘putting forth wrong facts.’
Janta Ka Reporter made several attempts, to contact the Mirzapur DM but he was unavailable. However, Mirzapur SP Avadhesh Kumar Pandey tol Janta Ka Reporter that their investigation had shown that the video was made viral with the intention to malign the state government. “Three people have been booked in connection with the incident, and the investigation into the matter was launched at the instruction of the DM,” Pandey said.
Jaiswal, who works for Jansandesh Times, had shared the video with ANI, which flashed it on social media before sharing it with TV channels. The developed had caused embarrassment to India in the global fraternity.
In the viral video, school children in Mirzapur of Uttar Pradesh were seen being handed out dry roti and salt as part of their mid-day meal. The state is governed by the BJP with Yogi Adityanath as chief minister.
Reacting to the development, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had said, “Children in a school in Mirzapur are being given roti and salt as part of mid-day meal. This is the true picture of the administration in the BJP government of Uttar Pradesh. The government facilities are deteriorating every day. The treatment meted out to these children is utterly condemnable.”
Faced with widespread condemnation and global embarrassment, District Magistrate of Mirzapur, Anurag Patel, said that he had suspended two people after the video went viral. “The issue has come to our notice and an enquiry was ordered in the issue. After the allegations of serving roti and salt were found true, two people Murari and Arvind Tripathi have been suspended and strict action will be taken further,” Patel was quoted by News18.
In the past, several journalists were arrested by the UP Police for social media post on Adityanath and holding debate shows on the claims made by a woman on the UP chief minister.
