BackAjit Pawar wants social media banned, RR Patil says no such plans
Maharashtra's deputy chief minister wants Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp banned 'on the lines of China'
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Mumbai: Maharashtra deputy chief minister and senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, Ajit Pawar, on Monday called for a ban on social media platforms Facebook and Twitter and instant messaging service WhatsApp “on the lines of China". However, his senior party colleague and home minister R.R. Patil stepped in to say the government had no such plans.
Pawar, who is also state finance minister, was replying to a debate on state budget when he claimed that these internet services were being used by miscreants to create communal tensions. “All political parties from the state should come together and make an appeal to central government," he added.
Realising the damage potential of Pawar’s statement, Patil told reporters: “There is no proposal before the state government to ban or control social media and NCP is not against social media."
Last Monday, Mohsin Shaikh, a Pune-based technology professional, was murdered allegedly by right wing Hindu outfit Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS). Earlier, there was tension in Pune after morphed pictures of Chhatrapati Shivaji, Sambhaji and former Sena supremo late Bal Thackeray appeared on Facebook.
After Shaikh’s murder, several incidents of attacks on mosques and the homes of minority community were reported from Satara and Kolhapur districts of the state. Morphed pictures of B.R. Ambedkar were also posted on Facebook, following which a bandh was observed in many towns and cities of the state on Sunday.
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