Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, while announcing the schedule of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in March, had warned against fake news on social media but is yet to act.


Election Commission of India. Photo: YouTube/ECI

By Sravasti Dasgupta

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India has continued to remain silent almost 24 hours since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Karnataka on Saturday (May 4) uploaded a video on its X (formerly Twitter) handle that showed caricatures of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah in a bid to demonise Muslims.

Continuing its openly communal campaign during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, the cartoon video is titled with the caption “Beware beware beware” in Kannada. It depicts a nest containing four eggs: one labeled “Muslims” and the others labeled “SC,” “ST,” and “OBC.” The video then shows Gandhi feeding the egg labeled “Muslim” from a carton labeled “Funds.” Subsequently, the egg labeled “Muslim” hatches into a larger chick wearing a skull cap, which then proceeds to throw out the other three eggs – SC, ST, OBC – while caricatures of Gandhi and Siddaramaiah laugh.

The Wire has written to the Election Commission (EC) regarding the video.

On Sunday, the Congress filed a complaint to the EC through its KPCC media and communication chairman Ramesh Babu against BJP president J.P. Nadda, its IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya, state president B.Y. Vijayendra and social media in-charge of the Karnataka BJP.

This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.