The Congress on Tuesday asked why Russian state broadcaster RT was “involved in domestic politics” of India after a social media account claiming to be that of the television network’s Indian subsidiary posted a video “trolling” Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.
The purported India-specific account of RT, formerly Russia Today, uploaded the video on social media platform Instagram on Monday. The post, which is no longer accessible, was an edited version of a video posted by Gandhi on social media platform X a day earlier.
In his video, Gandhi had questioned the integrity of the Securities and Exchange Board of India in light of the allegations against its chairperson Madhabi Buch and her husband Dhaval Buch made by American short-seller Hindenburg Research on Saturday.
Hindenburg Research claimed that the couple had “hidden stakes” in offshore entities tied to alleged stock price manipulation and money-laundering by the Adani Group.
On Sunday, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said that Madhabi Buch disclosed details about her holdings and recused herself in matters that potentially involved a conflict of interest.
The Adani Group termed the allegations “malicious, mischievous and manipulative selections of publicly available information” to arrive at “predetermined conclusions for personal profiteering with wanton disregard for facts and the law”.
Noting that the securities market regulator and the Gautam Adani-led conglomerate had “refuted” Hindenburg Research’s allegations, the social media post by RT’s purported Indian account claimed on Monday that the Opposition in India was “demanding” that “heads roll”.
In its video caption, the account said: “Lights, Camera, Nonsense!? RaGa’s Swings & Misses with Hindenburg claims?”
It added: “Is this the death of credibility or the birth of a new political comedy? Desperate moves or time to shake things up?”
On Tuesday, the Congress’ Kerala unit asked RT and the Russian embassy in Delhi if the account was authentic.
“Why was an edited video published by your official handle?” the party questioned. “Is there any payment from the Bharatiya Janata Party involved in this?”
It added: “Is this an official handle of Russia Today, owned by the Russian government? If not, why are you not requesting Government of India to pull it down since it claims to be official handle of RT?”
The party also asked the television network and the embassy to delete the post and issue an apology.
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