'How he become daring again': All India Radio mocks Rahul Gandhi

A few days earlier, StartUp India’s Twitter handle was in trouble after it retweeted a couple of hateful tweets. Now another agency aligned to the govt is under the cosh after tweeting stuff that can at best be described as unbecoming.

On a day that Rahul Gandhi told the Supreme Court that he stood by his statements saying that RSS murdered Gandhi there was hash tag trending #RahulRattlesRSS. All India Radio News’ Twitter handle tweeted about Rahul Gandhi: “Why he get scared earlier? How became daring again . He should stick to comments. #RahulRattlesRSS” This led Twitter user and Indian National Congress social media activist Rachit Seth to tweet: “So after Startup India account, Sanghis caught operating AIR account.”

Realising its mistake AIR tweeted: “The said tweet has been deleted on the direction of DG News as it did not conform to editorial standards of AIR.”

So after @startupindia account, Sanghis caught operating AIR account @airnewsalerts #Shameless pic.twitter.com/vhcAJUG2Zu

— रचित सेठ (@rachitseth) September 1, 2016

The said tweet has been deleted on the direction of DG News as it did not conform to editorial standards of AIR. https://t.co/iq43vuGVcZ

— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) September 1, 2016

How about an apology for that shameful, partisan tweet? https://t.co/mCp1J7yj02

— Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) September 1, 2016

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told Supreme Court that he stood by every word of his statement against RSS for the killing of Mahatma Gandhi and was ready to face trial before a Maharashtra court which had issued a summons to him as an accused in the case. "I stand by each and every word. I will never take my words back. I stood by it yesterday, I stand by it today and I will stand by it in future. I am ready to go to trial," senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who was appearing for Rahul, told a bench comprising Justices Dipak Misra and R F Nariman. The Congress Vice President had made the statement at an election rally in 2015. He would now face trial in a Bhiwandi court in Maharashtra where a defamation case has been filed. When the matter came up before the bench, the counsel appearing for an RSS functionary who has filed the complaint, said he had instruction that the matter can be put to an end if Rahul gave another clarificatory statement that he never intended to say that RSS was behind the assassination. However, Sibal's submission that the apex court should take on record that Rahul wanted to face trial as he stood by every word, was refused by the bench.

The court also refused to give exemption to Rahul from personal appearance before the Bhiwandi court in the case. Senior advocate U R Lalit, appearing for the RSS functionary, submitted that such a statement was needed from Rahul, as in the last 60 years, whenever there was an election, Congress made an attempt to blame RSS for the killing of the Father of the Nation.

"Whenever and wherever there is an election, RSS is maligned," he said. Lalit also said if Rahul was not willing to express his bonafide saying he had not intended to accuse the RSS for the assassination, he could show that the sequence of his sentences used in the election rally were such that RSS was his target. However, the submission was opposed by Sibal who said the statement made by the opposite side was like a political speech and cannot be accepted by the apex court. As the bench was not inclined to entertain Rahul's plea, Sibal said he preferred to withdraw the appeal filed by the Congress leader against the Bombay High Court judgement refusing to quash the case and summons issued to him by the trial court. The bench allowed his plea and declared the Special Leave Petition filed by Rahul as "dismissed as withdrawn". The bench also said the trial court would go into the case without being influenced by any of the observations made by the apex court and the High Court during the various hearings before them.