A tweet by the Delhi police regarding a demonstration in north Delhi’s Civil Lines area on Wednesday led to a sharp exchange of words between the force and the Aam Aadmi Party.
A tweet by the Delhi police regarding a demonstration in north Delhi’s Civil Lines area on Wednesday led to a sharp exchange of words between the force and the Aam Aadmi Party.
The police, however, claimed that the objective of the tweet was to ensure that people in Delhi do not face any inconvenience.
“Today at 11 am, 2,000 MCD teachers, doctors & pensioners will protest against non-release of their 3-month salary at Civil Lines,” Delhi police tweeted in the morning.
To the tweet, AAP’s Delhi convenor Dilip Pandey replied with: “@DelhiPolice Jobless Congress-sponsored protest details being announced by u with so much of details as if u have organised it.”
The Delhi police replied: “@dilipkpandey we issue an alert for any gathering above 1,000 people to prevent traffic hassles. We hope you appreciate the objective.”
To which the AAP leader replied: “@DelhiPolice Appreciate bt did u follow d same wen AAP protested agnst @arunjaitley, demanding his resignation in #DDCAScam No It’s Ok. More thn 2000 vols protested agnst @arunjaitley on 23 Dec, near Racecourse, water canon used, u didn’t even mention it on TL.” The tweet by the official handle of the Delhi Police was no longer visible on their page or over the micro-blogging network in a few hours, even as senior officials claimed that the tweet was not deleted.
Special commissioner of police (operation) Sundari Nanda said that the only objective of the tweet was to ensure that people in Delhi do not face any inconvenience for the demonstration by being aware of it in advance. The Delhi police’s tweet virtually appeared to have originated from Bardez in Goa, which senior officials said might have been a technical glitch.
Ms Sundari Nanda later assured that the tweet was posted from Delhi. The tweet also drew sharp reactions from twitteratti among other AAP leaders.
“So @BhimBassi’s team tweeting from “Goa” about protest in “Delhi” against CM @ArvindKejriwal ” tweeted AAP leader Kumar Vishwas.
Among others, one Manak Gupta tweeted “Why should @DelhiPolice tweet political details of a protest With no mention of a traffic warning at all,” tweeted Manak Gupta.
“This verified handle tweet clearly shows how the Delhi police is working against the AAP govt,” tweeted one Avinav.
