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Indian party activist arrested over see-through dress meme
KOLKATA, May 11, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Indian police have detained a ruling
party activist after she posted a meme superimposing the head of a state
chief minister on a photograph of a Bollywood star in a see-through dress, an
officer said Saturday.
The announcement injected controversy into campaigning ahead of polls
opening in West Bengal state on Sunday, where the right wing Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress are locked in a tense battle for votes
in the country’s general election.
Priyanka Sharma, a local BJP youth activist, was arrested for sharing a
viral meme on Facebook that superimposed the head of Trinamool leader and
state chief minister Mamata Banerjee on a picture of actress Priyanka Chopra
at the Met Gala in New York last week.
Sharma faces charges under India’s Information Technology Act which
punishes the transmission of “obscene” or “lascivious” material in electronic
form, police told AFP in the city of Howrah.
“We arrested a BJP leader Priyanka Sharma Thursday after a complaint was
lodged against her saying that she had posted a morphed photograph mocking
the chief minister Mamata Banerjee on a social networking site,” said Anant
Nag, Howrah police deputy commissioner. He said the complaint had been made
by a local leader from Banerjee’s party.
The Information Technology act and other laws have frequently been
deployed by politicians from all parties seeking to stifle social media
criticism.
Another political worker was arrested in West Bengal last year for
posting allegedly obscene pictures and comments about the chief minister,
while two people were jailed in the state in 2017 after they criticised local
police over traffic restrictions.
In northern Uttar Pradesh state, a man was arrested last year for a post
targeting the BJP chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
A journalist in northeastern Manipur state was also jailed last year for
allegedly criticising the state’s BJP chief minister and Prime Minister
Narendra Modi.
BSS/AFP/RY/1802 hrs