Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has taken legal action against Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and General Secretary Jairam Ramesh, issuing them legal notices. The move comes in response to allegations of sharing misleading and defamatory content about Gadkari on the microblogging platform X. Balendu Shekhar, Gadkari's lawyer, expressed the minister's shock upon discovering the contents and posts from the official Congress handle, emphasizing the need for legal intervention.
Kharge and Ramesh deliberately posted a 19-second video clip of Gadkari’s interview given to The Lallantop web portal, concealing the contextual intent and meaning of his words, the lawyer said.
The legal notice asserts that a deliberate and malicious act has been perpetrated with the clear intention and hidden agenda of generating confusion, sensationalism, and tarnishing the reputation of Nitin Gadkari in the public sphere. Furthermore, it alleges that this action also aims to disrupt the unity within the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is gearing up to secure public trust in the forthcoming general elections under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The notice also contends that Nitin Gadkari's interview was manipulated, misrepresented, and disseminated by uploading a video that lacks the necessary contextual understanding, thereby distorting its original meaning.
The same has been done deliberately and consciously with a selected piece of Hindi caption that says: Aaj gaon, mazdoor aur kisan dukhi hai. Gaon mein achhe roads nahi hai, peene ke liye shudh pani nahi hai, achhe aspatal nahi hai, achhe schools nahi hai Modi sarkar ke mantri Nitin Gadkari (Villages, labourers and farmers are unhappy today. Villages do not have roads, drinking water, good hospitals and schools — Nitin Gadkari, a minister in the Modi government).
It said Kharge and Ramesh, in spite of being aware of the full contents of Gadkari’s interview, wherein the efforts of the government were highlighted, deliberately posted the Hindi caption and the video clip by concealing the contextual meaning of the interaction to malign Gadkari’s reputation.
This legal notice is calling you to remove/delete the above mentioned post from your microbloging site ‘X’ forthwith and in any event, not later than 24 hours of the receipt of this legal notice, coupled with a written apology to my client within three days, failing which my client would have no other option but to take recourse to all such actions that are open to him, both civil and criminal, at your risk and expense, it said.