Twitter account blocked over criticism of farmers stir,
Alleging that the NDA governmentis not open to criticism, CPI(M) leader Mohammed Salim onMonday said his Twitter account was suspended during the day,after he compared the Union Budget with a trading platform,and slammed the Centre over its handling of the farmers stir.
Salim told reporters that his account as well those ofothers were blocked temporarily, “at the behest of the ITdepartment of the Centre”.
Twitter had blocked several accounts and tweets afterthe government asked the microblogging platform to take actionagainst 250 handles and posts which contained “false andprovocative content” related to the ongoing farmersagitation, according to sources.
“To my knowledge, 250 twitter accounts, includingmine, were blocked in the country. Accounts that shared postswith the farmergenocide hashtag were targeted,” he stated.
The posts were, however, visible everywhere outsidethe country, he said.
“This government does not want our voices to be heardby the people of the country. This government is scared of theagitating farmers,” he said.
Salim further said that he compared the Union Budgetwith an online trading platform on social media, as severalPSUs have been put up on sale.
“It seems that the BJP government at the Centre isputting up everything on sale gradually, but it is not willingto hear the voice of criticism. Despite serious effort tofudge figures, the Centre could not hide the currentunemployment rate, which is the highest at 9.1 per cent.
“From notebandi (demonetisation), GST to practisingdivisive politics and disregarding democracy, this governmentis showing all signs of fascism. The Budget highlights alsoshowed that,” the former MP maintained.
He said that the “Modi-Shah regime, marked by adistinct streak of authoritarianism”, always tries to suppressvoices that oppose its policies.
“This BJP government is not in favour of the farmers,they are in favour of profiteers who would buy the producefrom the crop growers at a premium. This government hadhatched a conspiracy to defame the agitating farmers. It istrying to create a rift among farmers. But they will stayunited,” the senior CPI(M) leader asserted.
The veteran politician also said that his party hasbeen taking out rallies to protest against the risingunemployment in the state as well as the country.
“Our students and youth will take out NabannaAbhijan soon in protest against the TMC governments failureto create jobs,” he added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
