Congress youth leader from Rajahmundry of Andhra Pradesh, GV Sriraj on Saturday, has written to the party leader to withdraw his suspension. He further made an appeal to interim president Sonia Gandhi, claiming that his act of cooking a bird was in support of Rahul Gandhi.
Andhra Pradesh Congress disciplinary committee has suspended Sriraj from the party primary membership saying that he had tortured a bird which is against party principles.
Sriraj had recently cooked a quail bird and sent it to the Twitter office in Mumbai to show his protest against blocking the Twitter account of Rahul Gandhi. However, that way of protest did not go well with the Congress leaders.
Responding to the suspension, Sriraj has written a letter to Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) disciplinary committee chairman L Eswara Rao that he had not tortured any live bird but had bought quail bird's meat and cooked it, which is legally allowed in India.
He wrote that "The act of cooking the quail bird in oil was a sign of protest and did not incite any violence or intend any animal cruelty, in any manner. As a matter of fact, any non-vegetarian dish is required to be cooked in oil to ensure it is ready to be consumed. I have not tortured any live bird and never intend to do so either."
In the letter that is also sent to Oommen Chandy, the in-charge of AP Congress affairs and other leaders, Sriraj wrote, "A cooked/fried quail bird is a staple dish in Andhra Pradesh and several other parts of the country as well. I have purchased a certain quantity of a quail bird from a local market and cooked in the manner it is usually cooked and staged the same as a protest to ensure the Twitter authorities stop acting at the behest of BJP and restore the Twitter account of Rahul Gandhi Ji."
"My actions of frying a quail bird do not promote any violence and cannot be misconstrued to be interpreted as actions of torturing a live bird. The video that I have uploaded merely records cooking a quail bird, which is a staple dish in Andhra Pradesh and does not record the killing or torturing of the bird," he further said.
"Further, this is not the first time that a protest has been staged through cooking a dish, several members of our own Party have staged protests on national highways by cooking non-vegetarian dishes. Such actions by members were not meant to torture animals, they were intended to spread awareness regarding their particular issue and similarly, my actions were also purely to protest against the actions of Twitter Authorities to blindly act on the instructions of BJP and suspend Rahul Gandhi Ji's Twitter handle without verifying the authenticity of allegations made against him," he said.
"In view of the above, I pray to kindly condone my actions, if perceived to be in the wrong sense and withdraw the Suspension Letter dated 20.08.2021 and restore me a member of the Congress Party as I never intended to breach the principles of our Party and at all times intend to abide by Party's ideology and values," wrote Sriraj.
In a video message in this connection, Sriraj appealed to interim party President Sonia Gandhi that his suspension was very humiliating as he did not commit any mistake. He explained that he had merely bought a quail bird and cooked it, only to show his protest on Twitter management.
Sriraj requested Sonia Gandhi to see that his suspension is withdrawn.
