P Thiaga Rajan, Tejasvi Surya 
Tamil Nadu

PTR slams Tejasvi Surya over BJP youth wing functionary’s arrest in Tamil Nadu

While PTR flagged a Yuva Morcha member’s tweet about CM Stalin as false, Tejasvi has claimed that the party functionary was merely flagging the fake news.

Written by : TNM Staff

A war of words has broken out between Tamil Nadu Finance Minister P Thiaga Rajan (PTR) and Bengaluru BJP MP Tejasvi Surya over the arrest of a BJP youth wing leader in Tamil Nadu on charges of spreading fake news. On March 25, PTR had posted a screenshot of a tweet by BJP Yuva Morcha functionary Atul Prasad, where Prasad had tweeted a morphed screenshot of a news item. The news item quoted PTR, and that he spoke about a “cooling jacket” worth Rs 17 crore which was worn by MK Stalin during his recent trip to Dubai. The screenshot was marked ‘FAKE’ by PTR with red handwritten font, and based on this tweet, Atul Prasad was arrested on March 29.

The Tamil Nadu Finance Minister called the screenshot his “first submission” to the state police’s new social media monitoring centre that was set up recently, adding that “some idiots: spread fake news like this without thinking of consequences. Sanghis should not go beyond poisoning on WhatsApp,” he tweeted along with the screenshot.

Since Prasad’s arrest, the Tamil Nadu BJP, headed by state president K Annamalai, has been condemning the move, demanding his immediate release. On Tuesday, March 29, BJP MP from Bengaluru and National President of the BJP Yuva Morcha, Tejasvi Surya, lashed out at the Tamil Nadu government. According to him, the youth wing member was ‘flagging’ the fake news.

“Tamil Nadu is turning into a facist state with the ruling DMK using all its might to stop BJP's growth. Illegal arrest of @BJYMinTN karyakarta Atul Prasad for flagging TN CM & FM's fake news will not deter us from working for Tamil Makkal. @BJYM demands his immediate release,” Tejasvi tweeted.

Then, Minister PTR took to Twitter again, and questioned both Annamalai and Tejasvi Surya for trying to cover up a mistake by the Yuva Morcha member. “See them making a mistake and making it look like they are fighting for the freedom of speech. All this is a little too much for Tamil Nadu people,” he wrote in Tamil.

According to reports, Atul Prasad was booked under Sections 154 (A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), and 505 (II) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code.