'BJP killer of democracy': Congress slams Centre over Jack Dorsey's 'shut down Twitter' threat claims

Congress on Tuesday mounted pressure on the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre over the former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's remarks and asked if the Narendra Modi government will answer.

Also Read| 'Outright lie': Centre denies Jack Dorsey's Twitter shut down claim

In a tweet, Congress General secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "Modi government forced Twitter to shut down accounts of farmers and farmer's movement, shut down accounts of journalists critical of government or Twitter and its employees would be raided. This is what Twitter Co Founder and Ex CEO Jack Dorsey admits in a TV interview. Will Modi Government answer?"

The Youth Congress and National Students' Union of India also took to Twitter to share the clip of Dorsey's claim which he made during an interview to YouTube channel Breaking Points on Monday.

NSUI president Neeraj Kundan in a tweet said, "BJP is the killer of democracy, it is being proved again and again. This is Jack Dorsey, former CEO of Twitter. Here he is saying 'During farmer protest Indian government pressurised us and said we will shut down twitter, raid the homes of your employees if you don't follow the suite'."

Youth Congress chief Srinivas BV took a swipe at the government and said, "Mother of Democracy - Unfiltered."

"During farmer protest, Modi govt pressurized us and said we will shut down your offices, raid your employees' homes, which they did if you don't follow suit - Jack Dorsey, former Twitter CEO," Srinivas wrote on Twitter attaching the video clip of Dorsey's interview.

During the interview, when asked if he had faced any pressure from foreign governments, Dorsey, who stepped down from Twitter's board last year, replied, "India for example, India is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers protests, around particular journalists which were critical of the government, and it manifested in ways such as 'we will shut Twitter down in India' ... we would raid the homes of your employees', which they did; 'we will shut down your offices if you don't follow suit'. And this is India, a democratic country."

Even Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) faction leader Priyanka Chaturvedi slammed the BJP and said, "The BJP and the government tried to crush the farmers protest, they tried to defame the movement, they called farmers terrorists, they called farmers anti national, they lathicharged the farmers, they let farmers die, they tried to silence the opposition in parliament, they tried to arm twist social media platforms to mute the voices of those supporting the farmers... but despite their might, despite their power, the farmers humbled their arrogance and forced the government to withdraw the farmers act. Indian democracy or rule of Modiocracy?"

Farmers from several states staged protest at the borders of Delhi for over a year from November 2020.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi admitted the failure in convincing the farmers and appealed to them to call off their year-long protest. In the winter session of Parliament, the three laws were withdrawn.