‘4th pillar of democracy dismantled in the lockup’: Rahul Gandhi on journalists forced to stripped semi-naked in MP

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Friday slammed the Madhya Pradesh government after photos of journalists forced to strip to their undergarments at a police station went viral on social media. “The fourth pillar of democracy ‍was dismantled in the lockup!” an outraged Rahul Gandhi tweeted.

Lashing out at the humiliating treatment meted out to the journalists, Gandhi also said the Bharatiya Janata Party-run government is “scared of the truth.” “Either sit in the lap of the government and sing their praises or go to jail. The government of ‘New India’ is afraid of the truth,” he said.

The incident in question took place on April 2 in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district but only came to light Thursday after photos of the semi-nude journalists emerged on social media.

The journalists and activists were protesting the arrest of theatre artiste Neeraj Kunder – who police claim made obscene remarks against BJP MLA Kedarnath Shukla and his son, Guru Dutt.

Niranjan Patnaik, president of the Congress’ Odisha unit, also criticised the BJP’s Madhya Pradesh government, which is led by Shivraj Singh Chouhan, alleging police had forced them to strip “because they exposed scams of a BJP MLA!”

“As journalists, it is their job to report the truth,” he tweeted.

Congress leader Ajay Singh called the incident a direct attack on “democracy’s fourth estate.”

“This behaviour of the cops with a journalist not only reflects terror of police, but also the BJP government’s attitude towards the media fraternity and its thinking,” he said.

As the photos caused outrage, senior police personnel at the station that held jurisdiction – in-charge Manoj Soni and sub-inspector Abhishek Singh – were ‘line-attached’, or shunted out from field duty, on chief minister Chouhan’s order.

Meanwhile, Soni dismissed a journalist’s charge that all eight were also assaulted by the cops.

“Their clothes were taken off to check them and this is a normal… They were not thrashed at the police station,” Soni claimed, adding the arrested persons were also creating a ruckus after which they were taken into custody.