The Uttar Pradesh government, facing flak over its new social media policy, came under attack from Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday, as she mocked the scheme as a ‘regressive and self-eulogizing’ move. Priyanka Gandhi, taking to X, shared a satirical post, saying “You will say what you like. If you call day as night, it will be night.” Firing a volley of questions, she questioned the state government on ensuring the security of women and also asked what steps it has taken to resolve the recruitment reservation case, concerning 69,000 teachers.
“In which category will the voices of women seeking justice fall in the social media policy of the Uttar Pradesh government? In which category will the questions raised in the 69000 teacher recruitment reservation scam fall? In which category would exposing the BJP government by BJP leaders and MLAs fall?” asked Priyanka Gandhi.
Notably, two girls were found hanging from a tree in Farrukhabad district on Wednesday, sending shockwaves in the city and leaving the state administration searching for answers. The Congress leader further accused the Yogi Adityanath government of stifling the freedom of speech and suppressing the truth by issuing such ‘diktats’.
She said that the state government rather than resolving people’s issues was finding ‘new ways’ to suppress the truth. “The policy of ‘if you call day as night, then it is night or else jail’ is another way of suppressing the truth. Can the BJP not think of anything more than crushing democracy and the Constitution?” she further said.
The UP cabinet on Wednesday gave nod to Uttar Pradesh Digital Media Policy 2024, which broadly has two components — one is encouragement for popularising the government’s schemes while another is about crackdown for objectionable and offensive posts on social media.
Soon after the policy details filtered into the public domain, Opposition parties cried foul and claimed that it was a blatant attempt to quell freedom of speech as this would allow the state administration to ‘torture and terrorise’ people even for speaking the truth.