Congress leaders on Sunday sought to corner the BJP leader and former RSS functionary, Ram Madhav, alleging that he was recently caught ‘red handed’ with women in Nagaland.
Leading the charge was Sushmita Dev, head of the women’s wing of the Congress party. Tagging the former Congress leader and now a BJP minister in Assam government, Himanta Biswa Sarma, she asked on Twitter, “@rammadhavbjp caught red handed in Nagaland. Is this true @himantabiswa ?? (sic)”
@rammadhavbjp caught red handed in Nagaland. Is this true @himantabiswa ??? https://t.co/NK7ch9T9mA
— Sushmita Dev (@sushmitadevmp) February 11, 2018
Dev was sharing a link to a website (now taken off from the web), which claimed that the senior BJP functionary and in-charge of the party’s north-east affairs, was allegedly caught with two Naga women in a hotel. The website’s report claimed that the ‘NSCN literally caught Ram Madhav with his pants down in Nagaland; has threatened to make video public if Nagaland elections not cancelled.’
The same link was widely shared by other Congress leaders and social media users.
NSCN literally caught Ram Madhav with his pants down in Nagaland; has threatened to make video public if Nagaland elections not cancelled. https://t.co/yHgKJ5T6AV
— Sadhavi Khosla (@sadhavi) February 11, 2018
Madhav was caught red handed and saffron faced, working well beyond his brief, with two Naga women in a hotel room https://t.co/FkvCxShSDq
— Salman Nizami (@SalmanNizami_) February 11, 2018
According to a report in The News Joint, Last week, National General Secretary of the BJP Mr. Ram Madhav was caught red handed with two Naga women in a hotel room. Will BJP clarify? Posting Screenshot as the News Website is down.https://t.co/Day8CScv7z… #RSSInsultsArmy pic.twitter.com/PwHPekgN5D
— Priyanka Gandhi (@WithPGV) February 11, 2018
Has Ram Madhav landed the BJP in trouble in Nagaland? https://t.co/DgTXHoE11F
The link is churning out a 503, check web archive.
— kaveri (@ikaveri) February 11, 2018
Ram Madhav was doing Ex Curricular activities in Nagaland he was video recorded?
After knowing about these activities NSCN barged into his room and made him do ExCurricular one more time and video recorded again?
He is the A man of Modi in NE and JKhttps://t.co/e3YgqFCDgx— भाव्येश (@HawaaBaaz) February 11, 2018
First the lies & failure of Naga Accord and now this !! The insurgent group NSCN in Nagaland has explicit footages of Ram Madhav and is using it to bargain with the BJP.
The BJP should focus on its conduct, than blaming the opposition all the time. https://t.co/hHOmQZKgcK
— Gaurav Pandhi (@GauravPandhi) February 11, 2018
Madhav is yet to comment on the allegations, that surfaced just two days after he briefed media in Tripura on his party’s prospects in the coming assembly elections. The BJP’s Nagaland unit has reportedly termed the report ‘fictitious.’ A report by IANS quoted the Nagaland unit of the party as saying that the news by The News Joint ‘seems to be a fake news agency or channel “devoid of any truth and written with malicious intent.”‘
“Such spreading of false news is tantamount to not only character assassination but also poses grave risk of sparking off communal tension,” the statement was further quoted by IANS.
Nagaland BJP has every right to sue the site which published the salacious piece on Ram Madhav. But why is it threatening that the piece could spark communal tensions? Why bring the communal angle in what is just a defamation case? pic.twitter.com/cb0cGWFTSh
— Aditya Menon (@AdityaMenon22) February 11, 2018
Sarma too condemned the ‘falsehood’ being spread by the website.
Shocked at utter & shameless falsehood being spread about @rammadhavbjp ji. We challenge those behind this blatant lie to prove the claims. Meanwhile, we are moving to the cyber crime department to investigate this. We shall also sue all those involved in spreading rumours!
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) February 11, 2018
Interestingly, only last week, Congress President Rahul Gandhi had targetted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his claims of signing the Naga peace accord involving NSCN in 2015. He had tweeted, “August 2015, Mr Modi claims to create history by signing the NAGA accord. Feb 2018, Naga Accord is still nowhere to be found. Modi ji is the first ever Indian PM whose words don’t mean anything.”
(The website thenewsjoint.com has disappeared from the web now with GoDaddy offering the domain for sale. Tweets included in this report by some Congress functionaries too have now been deleted.)