Extending support to Congress' former president Rahul Gandhi after Twitter allegedly "locked" his account last week, his sister and party leader Priyanka Gandhi along with other party leaders have changed their profile photo on their Twitter handle and replaced it with a photo of Rahul Gandhi.
To extend support leaders Alka Lamba, Varsha Gaikwad, Ajay Lallu, National Students' Union of India and National Students' Union of India of Assam too changed their profile picture to Rahul Gandhi.
Priyanka Gandhi also slammed Twitter for its action against Rahul Gandhi's handle saying, "Is Twitter following its own policy for the suspension of Congress leaders' accounts or the Modi government’s? Why hadn’t it locked the account of SC commission that had tweeted similar photos before any of our leaders did?"
She also said, "by locking Congress leaders' accounts en masse, Twitter is blatantly colluding with the stifling of democracy by the BJP government in India."
The Twitter appears to be locked in a conflict with the Congress, its senior leaders as well as the main party handle being 'locked' as of Thursday morning.
Taking to Facebook and Instagram, the Congress shared screengrabs to explain that it's official Twitter handle had been locked. As the post explained, the handle has been locked for violating Twitter's rules "against posting private information".
"The official Twitter account of the Congress party has been locked by Twitter India. Modi ji, just how afraid are you? Reminder: The Congress party fought for our nation's independence, equipped only with truth, non-violence and the will of the people. We won then, we'll win again," the party added in an Instagram post.
"Twitter has disappointed the people of India," said Congress secretary-communication Vineet Punia in a tweet on Wednesday, contending that the accounts of several top leaders had also been locked.
Alongside Gandhi, he said that that the handles of AICC general secretary and former union minister Ajay Maken, party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, party MP Manickam Tagore, Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev, Assam in-charge and former Union minister Jitendra Singh Alwar have been locked.
For the unversed, Gandhi had recently met with the parents of a minor girl who had allegedly been raped, murdered and cremated without her parents' consent in Delhi's Old Nangal crematorium. And while many have been calling for speedy justice for the victim, it did not go down well with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) when Gandhi shared a photo from the interaction. The NCPCR had contended that by revealing the faces of the victim's father and mother, he was also revealing the identity of the girl. The BJP filed a complaint against the Wayanad MP and Twitter at a sessions court in Jaipur for revealing the identity.
The Congress claimed that Twitter has locked accounts of Congress leaders Randeep Surjewala, KC Venugopal, Ajay Maken, party's whip in Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore, Assam in-charge and former Union minister Jitendra Singh and Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev.
