A BJP official in Tamil Nadu was detained on Friday purportedly for disseminating false information online. The party’s state secretary for Tamil Nadu, SG Suryah, was detained for a tweet that claimed a sanitation worker had died in Madurai. Mr. Suryah criticised Madurai MP Venkatesan in the same tweet for remaining silent.
The crime didn’t happen in the district, according to the Madurai district police.
The state president of the BJP has accused the state administration of using the police to restrict free speech and has denounced the arrest.
It is strongly condemned that Thiru @SuryahSG, the state secretary of the @BJP4TamilNadu, was arrested. His sole error, according to State BJP President K Annamalai, was exposing the communists, who are supporters of the DMK, for their vile double standards.
“Using state apparatus to stifle free speech and becoming tense over the smallest criticism is unbecoming of a democratically elected leader and, in fact, these are signs of an autocratic leader on the rise. TN CM Thiru @mkstalin is transforming the state into a lawless jungle by taking inspiration from autocrats. We shall continue to be the bearers of the difficult truth in spite of these arrests. Annamalai posted a tweet.district.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a minister for the union, described the detention as a “overreach” and a “violation of rights.”
Mr. Suryah claimed in a scathing letter addressed to Communist Party of India (CPI) Councillor Viswanathan that a sanitation worker from Madurai perished on the job as a result of being forced to work in faeces water and suffering an allergic reaction
The BJP leader attacked Mr. Viswanathan for having inconsistent standards and for making the deceased sanitation worker engage in manual scavenging even though he was aware that it was against the law. Suryah posted a tweet with the letter linked to it on his Twitter account.
Suryah criticised Madurai MP Venkatesan in the same tweet for remaining silent. “Your fake separatist politics stink worse than that cesspool, mate. Figure out how to live as a human being.
